The gruesome attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, which has claimed the lives of at least 59 people, has struck at the cosmopolitan heart of Kenya’s urban renaissance. The mall is a melting pot of elite Kenyans and expatriates – western and Asian – whose convergence is driving a boom in consumption and commerce, as well as an upsurge in innovation.

The al-Qaeda linked extremists from Somalia who are claiming responsibility have calculated carefully to inflict maximum damage. The timing of the attack, the worst perpetrated by terrorists in Kenya since the 1998 US embassy bombings, seems designed to undermine optimism about the economy – which hinges partly on Kenya’s status as a hub for tourism and trade.

The risk has always been that Islamist extremists from, or linked to, Somalia would hit back at soft targets in the region when squeezed by military pressure at home. This is especially the case since Kenya’s army rolled into Somalia two years ago as part of regional efforts to quash the militants and help re-establish some semblance of a Somali state. Uganda experienced a similar horror in 2010.