Ever since the Kenyan army took Kismayo about a year ago, a large-scale terrorist attack against Kenya was in the horizon. The Shabab foreign policy has always been to attack countries directly involved in combating them inside Somalia. The attack in Nairobi is therefore neither a change in the foreign policy of the Shabab nor unexpected. Earlier this year, the non-Somali Shabab were unhappy with having an ethnic Somali leading the foreign operations department. Shifting TacticsThe Westgate attack is just the latest of a string of Shabab attacks in which they use “martyrdom” commando raids to strike at target locations and end with detonating explosives on their bodies.