Garissa University marks four years since terror attack

Kenya’s Garissa University is marking four years since an al-Shabaab militant attack claimed 148 lives, most of them students. While the Somali terrorist group has carried out numerous assaults since then, it remains their deadliest attack inside Kenya, writes Rael Ombuor for Voice of America.

Twenty-four-year-old Vitalis Opiyo is a carpenter in Nairobi, but in 2015 he was studying to be a teacher at Garissa University when militants attacked. Opiyo says early on 2 April that year, he heard what sounded like gunshots, and after some minutes the sound of people screaming. His two roommates ran outside to see what was happening. It was the last time Opiyo saw them alive.

The university took nine months to reopen, but now has 1,500 students, more than double the number in 2015. Vice-Chancellor Ahmed Osman Warfa says they have healed from the tragedy. “We have moved on because of resilience, because of our marketing strategies and because of what we have done that has brought a lot of students back to the university. We have put up a perimeter wall, we have established a police post, which houses 30 officers,” Warfa said.
Full report on the VOA site