Universities and colleges
Garissa University, Kenya: history, courses and the 2015 attack
Garissa University is a public university in Garissa, the main town of Kenya's Somali-majority north-east. It opened in 2011 as a college of Moi University and became a full university on 23 October 2017. On 2 April 2015 gunmen killed 148 people there, most of them students; a Kenyan court in 2019 convicted three men linked to al-Shabaab.
In short
Garissa University is a public university in Garissa town, Garissa County, in north-eastern Kenya (Wikipedia). 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). 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). 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). 148 people were killed, most of them students, and 79 or more were wounded (Wikipedia). 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).
The attackers took Christian students hostage and freed most Muslim students, according to Wikipedia's account of the attack (Wikipedia).
After the attack
- Classes were suspended the next day, and buses took students home (Wikipedia).
- 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). 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). Kenyan outlets spell one name "Abdikar" (Nation).
Read more
Sources
- Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Al Jazeera, 19 June 2019 · aljazeera.com
- The Citizen, South Africa · citizen.co.za
- Nation · nation.africa
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