Kenya begins three days of mourning

Kenya has begun three days of national mourning for the 148 people killed by al Shabaab militants at a university last week.

Kenyans pray for unity at the start of three days of national mourning.

Kenyans pray for unity at the start of three days of national mourning.

(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)

Kenya has begun three days of national mourning for the 148 people killed by al Shabaab militants at a university last week.

Four masked militants from the Somali Islamist group stormed a university campus in Garissa on Thursday, seeking out Christian students to kill while sparing some Muslims.

As Santilla Chingaipe reports, authorities are saying they have identified one of the dead gunmen as the son of a Kenyan government official.

(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)

The sound of Easter Sunday ceremonies in churches across Kenya.

Unlike previous ceremonies, congregations around the country have had to use armed guards to protect worshippers following Thursday's attack

The Bishop of Garissa Cathedral parish, Joseph Alessandro, says people are afraid.

"A bit of worry and fear is almost every day, because these attacks came as a surprise so you are not prepared for them and this gives a sense of fear and uneasiness."

This worshipper, Meli Muasya, says she doesn't feel safe following the attack.

"Nowhere is safe, but here in church you can come, you be with God and then you just console yourself."

Elsewhere in Nairobi, there have been highly emotional scenes as grieving relatives and colleagues went to a city mortuary to identify the victims killed in the attack.

Many were sobbing and some collapsed as they left the mortuary, struggling to deal with the loss.

George Omondi is a student from another university who says it's been hard identifying loved ones.

"It has taken us close to twenty minutes, the bodies are quite deformed, they are quite destructured so we really had to take a lot of time to identify our colleague."

Meanwhile, Kenya's Interior Ministry says it has identified one of the four dead gunmen as the son of a Kenyan government official.

Abdirahim Abdullahi has been described as an ethnic Somali Kenyan national who was an A-grade pupil and law graduate.

His father is a local chief in Mandera County in the north-east of the country.

Al Shabaab has threatened further attacks in Kenya, which it says are reprisals for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.

Security has been stepped up security at shopping malls and public buildings in the capital, Nairobi, and in the eastern coastal region.

Officials have also imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in communities along its border with Somalia.

Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto has called for unity in the country.

"We must pull together and deal with the menace of terrorism, those who are the planners of this terror and their sponsors and collaborators, and all those who participate in helping them out, must not succeed."

 

 

 

 


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3 min read

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By Santilla Chingaipe


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