400 killed under Kenyatta’s rule
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SOMALI militants vowed yesterday to wage a long war against Kenya and run its cities “red with blood” after fighters killed nearly 150 people during an assault on a Kenyan university.
Kenyan officials said they had arrested five men in connection with Thursday’s attack by al Shabaab gunmen at Garissa university, 200 kilometers from the Somali border.
The raid has put Kenya on high alert and spooked Christian congregations, horrified by survivor tales recalling how the Islamist militants had sought out Christian students to kill, while sparing some Muslims.
In a message to the Kenyan public, the al-Qaida aligned group said the raid was revenge for Kenya’s military presence in Somalia and mistreatment of Muslims in Kenya.
“No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities,” the group said in an e-mailed statement.
It said it would run cities “red with blood,” adding: “This will be a long, gruesome war of which you, the Kenyan public, are its first casualties.”
The death toll in the Garissa blitz was put at 148. Four attackers also died and the authorities put their bullet-ridden, swollen bodies on display yesterday, hoping that the hundreds of locals who viewed the corpses might be able to identify them.
The Interior Ministry said that three men thought to have coordinated the assault were arrested while trying to flee to Somalia. They were all Kenyans of Somali origin, as was another of those detained, who worked as a security guard at the university.
A Tanzanian man named as Rashid Charles Mberesero was also arrested at the university.
“We suspect the Tanzanian was one of the combatants,” said ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka.
About the guard, he said: “He had ammunition ... We suspect (he) facilitated the entry.”
The Kenya Red Cross said it found a woman survivor yesterday in the university, two days after the siege ended.
The bloodshed piled further pressure on President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has struggled to stem the violence that has dented Kenya’s image and ravaged its tourism industry.
The timing of the attack has been embarrassing for Kenyatta, who a day earlier had berated Britain and Australia for putting out travel warnings over security threats to the country.
Local media, whose coverage has been uncharacteristically tame due to a new law that forbids them from showing images that would create “fear” among the public, have been skeptical about the government’s latest promise to halt the slaughter.
“The usual assurances that security is being beefed up and patrols intensified have become hollow,” said the Daily Nation newspaper.
Foreign media published a photograph they said was taken by Kenyan police that showed more than 70 bodies, lying face down in a university hallway, each apparently shot in the head.
More than 400 people have been killed by al-Shebab on Kenyan soil since Kenyatta took power in April 2013, including 67 who died in September of that year during a siege on an upmarket shopping mall in the capital Nairobi.
The suspicion that the gunmen were helped by Kenyans will put pressure on the Muslim community and highlight the state’s failure to stop radicalization of local Muslims, who make up about 10 percent of the 44-million population.
Diplomats and analysts have criticized what they see as a heavy-handed approach by Kenyan police, saying tactics such as indiscriminate mass arrests of Kenya’s Somali population plays into al-Shebab’s hands and fuels resentment among Muslims.
Kenya said Mohamed Mohamud, a former teacher at a Garissa madrasa, was the attack mastermind, and offered a 20 million shillings (US$215,000) reward for his arrest.
Garissa residents have reacted with fury to the massacre, and question why only two security guards were on duty despite warnings that al-Shebab was planning to target a university.
“We are very worried,” said construction worker Tobias Ayuka.
Fearful of more assaults, mall owners in Nairobi and Mombasa have sought greater government protection and ratcheted up private security.
“We are getting more armed police and plainclothes police officers. Everywhere is on high alert,” one said.
Along Kenya’s coastline, where several resort towns cater to Western tourists, police have put armed officers in major public buildings.
“Officers are everywhere ... We have two helicopters (on) patrol,” said Robert Kitur, police chief for Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast region.
Garissa Governor Nathif Jama said the region has a number of security “soft spots,” including schools and hospitals, and asked for more support.
Jama said Garissa University has been shut indefinitely, and some students said even if it reopened, they would not return.
“I’m telling you I’ll never come back,” said Sheillah Kigasha, 20, who survived the rampage by hiding under a bed.
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