A soldier who rescued hundreds of survivors during the Westgate Mall attack in 2013 has narrated his story for the first time a decade later.
Taff Grove, who was attached to the British Special Air Service (SAS) at the time, told Wales Online, a UK-based outlet, that he dashed into the mall shortly after the terrorist attack to rescue a work colleague and his wife.
He noted that he, alongside former Irish Ranger Lorcan Byrne rushed into the building unarmed and without any discernible plan but with the goal of saving people.
Once he got into the building, Grove met individuals who were fleeing for safety but soldiered on, vowing to help combat the terrorists who were still shooting aimlessly.
“As a former soldier, you are used to bangs and guns. I was not scared, it sounds daft, but this is my training. You think this is a pretty dumb thing to do to walk into this situation, but I knew I could help and could not walk away. As a soldier, you are used to having a gun in your hand but we walked in without a gun," he stated.
“Going up the stairs you take it technically. You are hyper-alert and planning all the way. If someone pops around that corner what will you do? I had only ever been to the mall once for a coffee, I didn’t know the place.”
To aid him, Grove was escorted into the building by four Kenyan police officers who had refused to give him their guns.
One of the terrifying encounters he recalled from the incident was when the terrorists fired into a children’s cooking competition at the rooftop car park.
“It was pretty sad in the cooking area. There were badly injured people and you see it as something you need to sort out. I am just lucky things don’t get to me and because of my training I felt I could help. How do I feel now? I am glad I was there on that day. You don’t want to see this stuff but I was able to help," he recalled.
The two helped the first group of 60 individuals evacuate the building and tendered to others who had sustained injuries.
For 10 years, only the individuals that Grove and Lorcan had rescued knew about their heroic acts with the former remaining adamant that he wanted his identity under wraps.
So insistent was he that when a plane he travelled on to the UK a day after the attack landed in London, he did not step forward when then British police asked whether anyone on the flight had experienced the tragedy at Westgate.
“I didn’t want to talk about it at the time. I had a job to do and was still in the SAS reserves so I thought I had better keep my head down," he told the outlet.
68 individuals lost their lives during the attack that left significant damage in the mall located in Westlands, Nairobi.
