600 students leave Garissa for their homes

Garissa University College students in a bus at Garissa Military Camp on April 4, 2015. More than 600 students were ferried to their homes using National Youth Service vehicles. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |

What you need to know:

  • Survivors left military camp yesterday where they had been staying since the attack on Thursday
  • Others said they were sad to leave but it was safer to stay away.

Asomber mood engulfed Garissa military camp on Saturday when 663 students who survived the terrorist attack on Garissa University College left for different destinations aboard 13 buses.

The students broke into tears as the buses left the military camp where they had been staying since al-Shabaab militants attacked early Thursday. Residents and community members from the area came out in large numbers in solidarity with the students to give them a warm send-off.

Garissa Governor Nathif Jama was among county and national government officials who saw the students off. Mr Jama gave a personal donation of Sh663,000 in cash for the students’ lunch. He was joined by county commissioner Njenga Miiri.

Speaking at the military camp, Mr Miire thanked Kenyans for remaining united in the fight against terrorism.

“Our enemies are desperate to create an unnecessary wedge between Kenyan communities of diverse faith and ethnicity, but they have failed because we have remained more united,” he said.

He appealed to the public to be extra vigilant against the terrorist actions or segregating people along religious lines.

The county commissioner said the college will remain closed as the ballistic and anti-terrorism detectives were combing the area for evidence that would help in piecing together what happened.

Sources said that American agents had joined in the investigations on Friday, but the county commissioner declined to speak on the issue during his press briefings.

Speaking at the same function, Governor Jama said it was regrettable that so many innocent students were brutally killed and put into torturous experiences by gunmen whose agenda is to further marginalise the former North Eastern Province region.

“This was the only university we have in the entire region. In the short time it has existed the student population has grown to over 800, which tells us that there are many children who were unable to travel out of the region in pursuit of higher education,” he said.

He added: “With the closure of the university following the heinous terror attack, many students from poor families are likely to drop out.

There are students who were struggling to raise college fees, and now they have to pay an extra cost travelling outside the county to get education, which would have been easily available were the university still functioning.”

Mr Jama said leaders from the region have resolved to go back to the drawing board and sit with the local communities to agree on how best to counter activities of extremist groups, who are bent on making the region inhabitable.

He said the aim is to market the university and tell Kenyans that we can win the war on terrorism if we remain united.
But the indinifinite closure of the university could jeopardise this plan, given that some of the students who survived vowed never to return.

“That is like playing with my life. I will not return here. They will have to transfer me,” said Jacob Wafula, a student of education majoring in history and Kiswahili.

Others said they were sad to leave but it was safer to stay away.

But Mr Jama said: “We will need to comb this town and ask ourselves; do we have any sympathisers?

“Otherwise, people should not complain if it happens again in the future. How did those four boys come in? They didn’t fly. We are told they came by road and someone drove them around”.

Additional reporting by Aggrey Mutambo