NAIROBI // David Odhiambo was one of the blue-uniformed security guards tasked with protecting Nairobi's Westgate Mall one year ago when four heavily armed terrorists attacked.
The work David was paid to do - search purses and bags, mostly - earned him two bullets in the head, injuries that cost him his job.
Nairobi has tens of thousands of guards like Mr Odhiambo. They guard banks, restaurants, malls and homes. They are not armed and when criminals or terrorists attack, they are often the first casualties.
Two bullets fired by Al Shabab's four mall attackers grazed Mr Odhimabo's scalp. At least 67 people died in the assault on September 21, 2013.
"The guys, I saw them. They were very close to me, and I laid down on the ground when they started shooting," Mr Odhiambo said in his tiny, one-room home which he shares with his wife and four children. "I'm lucky. Even while I was lying down then I was praying to my God because there was nothing I could do."
Prayers will be held on Sunday, exactly one year after the attack, with a memorial concert and candlelit vigil for the following three nights.
Somalia's militant group Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. The attackers died in the siege. Later four other men were arrested and charged with aiding the assault and they are on trial. Earlier this month, nearly a year after the mall attack, a US attack in Somalia killed the head of Al Shabab.
Mr Odhiambo is without a formal job and many of the Kenyan capital's shopping areas remain protected by unarmed, poorly trained security guards.
Though, as a result of the Westgate attack, new contingents of armed security forces have been stationed at major malls. No similar attack has since taken place.
Kenya authorities said they have been on high alert this month as the anniversary of the Westgate attack approached. In Uganda this month, authorities said they foiled an Al Shabab attack.
Security experts say Kenya and the East Africa region remain vulnerable to attacks.
"There are too many targets, an infinite number of targets if you will. There are schools, there are hospitals, hotels, shopping malls, open-air markets," said Matt Bryden, the former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea and an expert on Al Shabab. "Al Shabab is prepared to hit soft targets and there is nothing any government can do to protect everywhere all of the time. The best defence is intelligence."
The job of unarmed security guard is one of Kenya's most dangerous. Nearly 50 guards have died in attacks this year alone, said Isaac Andabwa, the secretary general of the Kenya National Private Security Workers Union. Another 100 have been seriously wounded.
With grenade, bomb and gun attacks increasing in Kenya, guards should be trained in explosives and surveillance and be given bullet proof vests and possibly guns, Mr Andabwa said.
"You cannot guard the Village Market with a baton," he said, referring to an upscale mall near the UN offices and the US Embassy. "You are only creating more insecurity and putting lives of the people there in danger."
Mr Odhiambo was the first Westgate victim taken to hospital.
After surgery to remove the bullets from his head, he stayed there for two weeks and president Uhuru Kenyatta visited him. Five weeks after Kenya's worst terror attack, his employer, Securex, wanted their Dh700-a-month security guard back on the job.
"I felt I was not capable and they said if I felt I could not do the job I should resign and that's what I did," said Mr Odhiambo, who now makes Dh11 a day selling charcoal. "This hip, I can't stand for long, and even walking was a big problem. I saw that if they were forcing me to work then they didn't care about me."
When a guard dies in the line of duty, his family is given just more than Dh3,300 as compensation, Mr Andabwa said. That is the amount that Mr Odhiambo was given when he left his job at Securex, he said.
Securex denied forcing Mr Odhiambo back to work.
"We gave him his dues as stated by law. We did not force Mr Odhiambo out of the company. We received a request from him to resign. We are very sorry about what happened at Westgate. It was beyond our control and we do not have any ill motives toward him," said Brian Sagala, Corporate Liaison officer at Securex, a regional private security company.
Despite the danger, the long hours and the low pay, Kenyans clamour to get security guard jobs, Mr Odhiambo said, because there are so few job opportunities available.
It takes Mr Odhiambo 10 days of selling charcoal to pay his children's monthly school fees. So if the chance to work as a security guard comes around again, Mr Odhiambo said he would take it.
"Yeah, I would do it to support these kids," he said. "I have no other resources."
* Associated Press
