Ruhila Adatia-Sood One of 68 Dead After Terror Attack at Kenya’s Westgate Mall

Ruhila Adatia-Sood One of 68 Dead After Terror Attack at Kenya’s Westgate Mall
Zachary Stieber
9/22/2013
Updated:
7/18/2015

Ruhila Adatia-Sood, a presenter for East FM and an entertainment host for Kiss TV, was one of the 68 people killed in the attack at Nairobi’s Westgate mall.

Adatia-Sood was hosting the cooking competition on the roof of the mall on September 21 when a group of al-Shabab gunmen entered the mall and began shooting people.

“Of the many who lost their lives in the attack yesterday, Ruhila may be the most familiar,” according to Kenyan news agency Daily Nation. “Kenyans are most likely to recognise her bubbly voice reading entertainment news on Kiss TV, Kiss 100 and XFM. Perhaps as a sign of her popularity, there was a page in her memory on Facebook last evening.”

A series of photos shared through Instagram and Twitter by Adatia-Sood shows a merry event happening on the rooftop, cut short by the attack.

She was, according to her description of herself on her Twitter page, a food lover and thrill seeker. She graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa, and was pregnant with her first child.

Adatia-Sood also had a connection with the United States--she was the wife of Ketan Sood, a senior acquisition and assistance specialist at the USAID mission in Nairobi.

“Ruhila was a popular radio and TV personality, who was known throughout Kenya for her passion, vibrancy, and gift for making people smile,” said Dr. Rajiv Shah, a USAID administrator, in a statement.

The terrorist attack “was shocking in its brutality and brazenness,” he said. “The thoughts and prayers of our entire agency are with Ketan, his family, and his fellow citizens in these profoundly difficult days.”

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