I live in Nairobi, Westgate mall is 2km far from my home. Several of my friens and colleagues were in westgate mall when it happened. There was a children cooking contest going on that day and it was just another shopping Saturday for all.
Al Shebaab target this mall because there are a lot of foreigners and it is a symbol of Kenya economicial success. According to AS twitter account, this attack is made to force Kenya to withdraw its troops from Somalia. To me, it is a Mumbay stile attack: a group of armed men entered the mall and started to shoot in the crow.

What is amazing is to see all the people together, helping each others to escape, black, white, indians, muslim, christians... In a Kenya were ethnic group, religion and origins are often an issue: all are together to face this coward act.

The operations were still going on this Sunday at noon (Kenya time).