Kenya has announced that it will arm private security officers guarding public places in the aftermath of last Tuesday’s attack on a luxury hotel and office complex.

The siege, which lasted eighteen hours and left twenty-one people dead, was claimed by the al-Qaeda-linked Somalia-based armed group, al-Shabab.

Armed contractors will guard key installations where there is a lot of human traffic.

Two security guards were among the dead in the attack at the Dusit hotel complex in Nairobi.
Private security companies, which have long called on the government to allow them to issue guns to security guards, welcomed the decision.