Kenya’s Garissa university reopens after deadly al-Shabab attack

Kenya’s Garissa university reopens after deadly al-Shabab attack

Christian students were separated from Muslim students and killed

By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service

GARISSA, KENYA (ANS – Jan. 4, 2016) -- Kenya's Garissa University College has officially reopened, nine months after the killing of nearly 150 people, mainly students, in an attack by militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

The BBC is reporting that staff have reported to work while students are expected to be back on campus next Monday.

A police post has been set up on the campus in north-eastern Kenya, to improve security.

Last year's attack was the deadliest so far by the Somali-based group in Kenya.

Following its closure, some 650 students from Garissa University College were offered places at a sister campus in Eldoret, western Kenya, to continue their studies.

They are not expected to return to Garissa now that it has reopened, university authorities say.

According to http://qz.com website, the massacre, in which Christian students were separated from Muslim students and killed, took place in April, but gained new attention internationally after the attacks in Paris in November.

The re-opening ceremony was held the same week as the one-year anniversary of the other major attack in Paris last year, at the offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Some 25 security guards were stationed throughout the grounds of the small school during the reopening.

“We’ve worked hard for this university to be here. We will use everything possible to have it open,” principal Ahmed Oman Warfa said. He added that a perimeter wall would be built and CCTV cameras installed.

Kenya has been the target of increasing attacks from al-Shabaab militants since 2011 when Kenyan military forces entered Somalia to help prop up the Somali government.

The French government has set up a fund for 109 students injured in the attack towards each student's tuition fees and living allowance for the year.

In May, local media reported that students at the Garissa Teachers Training College, which has a separate campus, but lies just 200m from the site of the attack, refused to return to class, citing security concerns.

Al-Shabab says it is opposed to the presence of Kenyan troops in neighboring Somalia.

Photo captions: 1) Scene inside of the massacre. 2) There was a tight security presence as the campus reopened to staff. 3) Entrance to the college. 4) Dan Wooding.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the author of some 45 books and has two TV programs and one radio show in Southern California, and has reported widely for ANS from all over Africa, including Kenya.

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