# Garissa University, Kenya: history, courses and the 2015 attack

> Garissa University in north-eastern Kenya: when it opened, what it teaches, who leads it, and the 2 April 2015 attack and court case.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/institutions/garissa-university/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## In short

Garissa University is a public university in Garissa town, Garissa County, in north-eastern Kenya ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)). It was the first public university college to offer approved degrees in the former North Eastern Province (same source).

## How it started

The university began in 2011 as a constituent college of Moi University, in the buildings of the former Garissa Teachers' Training College ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)). Its library dates from 1996, when it served the teacher training college (same source).

President Uhuru Kenyatta granted it a charter as a full university on 23 October 2017 (same source).

## What it teaches

It has schools of education, information science, and arts and social sciences ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)). Its motto is "Oasis of innovation" (same source).

**Leaders named:** Prof. Ahmed Warfa, vice-chancellor; Prof. Nganga Stephen Irura, deputy vice-chancellor for finance and administration; and Prof. Hussein A. Golicha, deputy vice-chancellor for academics (same source).

## The attack of 2 April 2015

In the early hours of 2 April 2015, armed attackers entered the campus, shot two security guards and then fired on students ([Al Jazeera, 19 June 2019](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/19/kenya-court-convicts-three-over-garissa-university-massacre)). 148 people were killed, most of them students, and 79 or more were wounded ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)). Al-Shabaab claimed the attack (same source). Al Jazeera described it as the second deadliest attack in Kenya, after the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi ([Al Jazeera, 2019](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/19/kenya-court-convicts-three-over-garissa-university-massacre)).

The attackers took Christian students hostage and freed most Muslim students, according to Wikipedia's account of the attack ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)).

## After the attack

- Classes were suspended the next day, and buses took students home ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garissa_University_College)).
- About 650 surviving students moved to Moi University's main campus in Eldoret (same source).
- The Garissa campus reopened on 5 May 2015 with tighter security. Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi urged students to return; many refused (same source).

## The court case

In June 2019 a court in Nairobi found three men guilty. Judge Francis Andayi said they "were members of the al-Shabab terrorist group whose members carried out the attack" ([Al Jazeera, 19 June 2019](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/19/kenya-court-convicts-three-over-garissa-university-massacre)). A fourth accused, Sahal Diriye Hussein, was acquitted (same source).

Rashid Charles Mberesero, a Tanzanian, was sentenced to life in prison. Two Kenyans, Mohamed Ali Abikar and Hassan Aden Hassan, were each sentenced to 41 years ([The Citizen, South Africa](https://citizen.co.za/news/news-africa/2150351/three-accomplices-given-long-sentences-for-kenya-university-attack/)). Kenyan outlets spell one name "Abdikar" ([Nation](https://nation.africa/kenya/news/3-suspects-found-guilty-in-garissa-university-terror-attack-178378)).

## Read more

- [Somalis in Kenya](/en/diaspora/kenya/)
- [The Northern Frontier District, 1962 to 1967](/en/history/northern-frontier-district-1962-1967/)
- [Al-Shabaab](/en/history/al-shabaab/)

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