Nairobi terror attack tests unity of multi-faith Kenya Country at pains to show united front, six years after ethnic violence brought it close to civil war One of the reasons so many people in Nairobi congregate at shopping malls is fear of crime. Lone shops and restaurants, entry gates and dark bumpy roads are prone to armed robberies and carjackings. Shopping centres contained within high-walled compounds with guards and bright lights are supposed to make all that go away. So all the more disturbing for Kenyans when the idea of the shopping mall as a haven was utterly subverted in last week's terrorist attack. There are few more high-profile targets than Westgate, the country's self-styled premier shopping centre at the heart of a city suburb filled with affluent Kenyans, Indians and expatriates. Global Insight In the wake of the Westgate massacre, Kenya, an otherwise fractured society, is at pains to show a united front. It is only six years since ethnic violence brought the country to the edge of civil war. More than a thousand people were killed and two-thirds of a million displaced following the disputed 2007 election. President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke movingly of Kenyans responding as "a national family" to the Westgate attack in which at least 67 were killed and 240 injured. He said: "There is, evidently, no limit to your patriotic sacrifice," emphasising the "overwhelming" response to blood donations that were given regardless of whichever ethnicity might receive it. We must live as a tolerant, diverse society. This call for unity will be tested in the days ahead. The Islamist attackers who killed in the name of Somalia's al-Shabaab jihadist militants spared some Muslims, prompting fears that this multi-faith nation would divide along religious lines. Kenya has a particularly complicated relationship with its ethnic Somali population, thought to number more than 1m in a country of 44m. Some ethnic Somalis occupy senior roles in government, such as foreign minister Amina Mohamed, but many more are marginalised. In 1984, government troops massacred ethnic Somalis on an airstrip in northeastern Kenya. Nairobi's Eastleigh neighbourhood, known as Little Mogadishu, receives scant state services and is regularly raided by police searching for Islamists. Kenya also fears that Islamists recruit followers and plan operations in the Somali refugee camps just inside the Kenyan border. Much of Kenya's huge and arid northeast is a lawless land plagued by bandits vulnerable to Islamist influences. Parliamentarians are calling with renewed fervour for the camps to be closed. Human rights organisations, citing international law, say Kenya cannot do so. Some western governments are keen to help Kenya address border control, insecurity inside the camps and repatriate Somalis. An estimated 435,000 Somalis live in five camps at Dadaab, a sprawling conurbation of tents. Some have spent their entire lives there during Somalia's 22-year civil war; others came after the 2011 famine but have since returned. Visitors to the camps require armed protection. Some aid workers have been abducted and taken over the border into Somalia. There were gun attacks in the camps last week. But ethnic Somali vigilantes and first aiders were also lauded as heroes for coming to the aid - often with great courage - of victims caught up in the Westgate siege. Muslim volunteers rescued hundreds of people trapped in the mall. Inter-faith prayers televised live to the nation and attended by senior state officials, including Mr Kenyatta and chief justice Willy Mutunga, on Tuesday underlined the effort to unite the country. But it will not be straightforward. Mr Kenyatta is himself accused of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in marshalling ethnic attack squads against rivals in the violence following the 2007 election. He is due to stand trial on November 12 at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Mr Kenyatta's supporters want the case against him deferred until he has left power - five or 10 years from now. They are likely to be disappointed. But Kenya may yet convince the ICC to grant Mr Kenyatta the right to give evidence by video conference. That way he can run his badly wounded country, appoint more robust security apparatus to fend off the next terror attack, and try to make a reality of his commitment to unity.