The 'gun man', why did he do what he did?

He surely punished himself by committing suicide, but what else did he do? He seems to have been showing the 'authorities' that he had 'ultimate power' at least over his self. There was a zone that not even that his 'oppressors' could reach, while he could.

This isn't any different from what the Al Shabaab did. His death was a just a point on the terrorist continuum, and I doubt whether it's qualitatively different from the Westgate attack.

As for the American police, can one say they performed better than our KDF? I doubt it. They may not have 'looted' or 'bombed' the place; they may have restricted movement, but they couldn't do what really mattered- prevent the event or even protect the citizens who were in the mall.

If there are lessons to be learned then they are not so direct.