When it opened its doors in 2011 Garrisa University College ( GUC) was seen as a centre for excellence and higher learning. No one ever thought it will one day turn into a slaughter house.
Many students from across Kenya in disregard of their religion worked hard to get a chance to be in such an institution. Their aim was to get higher education not knowing what they saw as something to enrich their intellectuality was a death trap when viewed from an al-shabaab's telescope.
It was the events of one cold morning, Thursday 2nd 2015, when the tide of knowledge was disrupted by the sounds of bullets and cold murder of security guards at the institution. Sending a magnitude of shock waves and fear not only to awakening parents in Garissa but to the whole nation.
"AL-Shabab: Christian hostages held in kenya university" was the headline on Aljazeera's website, the world's leading media house in terror reporting. "At least 15 killed and 65 wounded as al-shabab gunmen storm university complex in northeastern town of Garissa" continued the bullet lead on their website.
The tempo of the scary incident was the same on BBC's, Standard media's, Nation media's online platforms. They all had stories highlighting the dawn attack on innocent students.
To journalists this was a busy day at work. Acres and acres of word documents were prepared, several phone calls made, twitter feeds a buzz and a rainy day for bloggers. Everybody wanted to get to know what was going on at the institution. More so was getting the answer to the question "why?"
According to the Somalia's al-Qaeda- linked al-Shabaab group their gunmen were holding christians hostage inside the complex in revenge for Nairobi's troops fighting Somalia.
"The gunmen divide students at the university between muslims and non-Muslims, letting the Muslim students go" said Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage on phone speaking to AFP news Agaency.
"Kenya is at war with Somalia ... our people are still there, they
are fighting and their mission is to kill those who are against
al-Shabab," Rage continued.
"When our men arrived, they released some people, the Muslims, and it
is them that alerted the government. We are holding the others
hostage," he said, adding those seized were Christians, but not saying
how many there were.
He did not give details on the number of casualties but said "there are very many". A response one can term to be a well planned coward response to scare Kenyans.
The truth of the matter is that al-Shabaab met resistance on their first attempt to take siege of the campus. A situation that caused them to regroup and attack again. Perhaps taking advantage of the slow response for a back up call made by the police officers manning the campus.
The institution is situated in about 380km from Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. A distance that cannot be easily covered by road. A flight would have been the ideal response but the area is still lagging behind when it comes to infrastructure. Thus causing a major delay in response to a number of scattered attacks orchestrated by the militia group in the area.
Further more the institution harbors students from all over the country. Making it an ideal place to get a good co-existence between Christians and Muslims. Hence making it a potential target for their so called revenge on Christians.
Al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Garissa and across Kenya
in the past, including the 2013 attack on an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi killing at least 67 people.
In November 2014 Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for holding up a bus outside Mandera Town where they killed 28 non-Muslims.
Ten days later, 36 non-Muslims quarry workers were also massacred in the area.
One common thing we should all know is that most of the attacks have been suicide missions. Missions that target soft spots where there is minimal resistance. A distraction each time their stronghold is about to be toppled over by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF).
This point out to one thing. Al-Shabaab is on its death bed. A toothless dog that cannot bite but only scare away people by barking loudly. How else can we explain their target for soft places if it is not on its death bed?
