Kenya in shock after Shebab massacre
Death toll likely to climb above 147, Shabaab killed more than 400 people in Kenya
Garissa ( Kenya), April 3: The death toll in an assault by Somali militants on a Kenyan university is likely to climb above 147, a government source and media said on Friday, as anger grew among local residents over what they say was a government failure to prevent bloodshed.
Strapped with explosives, masked Al Shabaab gunmen stormed the Garissa University College campus, some 200 km ( 120 miles) from the Somali border, in a pre- dawn rampage on Thursday.
Anger over the massacre was compounded by the fact there were warnings last week that an attack on a university was imminent.
Local residents accused the authorities of doing little to boost security in this little- developed region. “It’s because of laxity by the government that these things are happening. For something like this to happen when there are those rumours is unacceptable,” said Mohamed Salat, 47, a Somali Kenyan businessman.
Officials said almost 150 people died, with at least 79 wounded, many critically. But with an uncertain number of students and staff still missing, the casualties may yet mount. “Yes, there is a likelihood of numbers going up,” said one government source dealing with the Garissa attack. Kenya’s biggestselling Daily Nation newspaper, citing sources, said the death toll would be significantly higher.
The violence will heap further pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has struggled to stop frequent militant gun and grenade attacks that have dented Kenya’s image abroad and brought the country’s vital tourism industry to its knees.
More than 400 people have been killed by Al Qaeda- allied Al Shabaab in the east African nation since Mr Kenyatta took office in April 2013, including some 67 people who died in a blitz on a shopping mall in the capital Nairobi in September of that year.
Al Shabaab says its recent wave of attacks are retribution for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight the group alongside other African Union peacekeepers.
Survivors of the Garissa attack spoke of merciless executions by the attackers, who stalked classrooms and dormitories hunting for non- Muslim students.
Reuben Mwavita, 21, a student, said he saw three female students kneeling in front of the gunmen, begging for mercy. “The mistake they made was to say ‘ Jesus, please save us’, because that is when they were immediately shot,” Mwavita said.