Kenya marks one week of university massacre

ONE week after deadly al-Shabab attacks on a Kenyan university in Garissa, a Nairobi morgue has started to release the bodies of some of the 148 people killed.

Coffins were released to grieving families, who prepared to take their relatives home for burial.

The attackers from the al-Qaeda-aligned group had killed the victims, including 142 students, after storming the Garissa University College in Kenya’s northeast on April 2.

After besieging the university, the attackers lined up non-Muslims before executing them.

Robert Muchiri, a cousin of 21-year-old Mary Muchiri, who was killed in the Garissa attack, told the Associated Press news agency that the bodies were “very much destroyed”.

“It was hard to identify the body, but our cousin had managed to identify the body, so we had no difficulties,” Muchiri said.

“Only that we were waiting, we were eager, we were tensioned [tense], but by the government, but at least they have done something.”

As the bodies were released on Wednesday, many family members described the death of a child in the Garissa slaughter as not just an emotional blow, but also the loss of an “investment” into which they had poured money and hopes.

Making it to university is a big achievement in Kenya, where many people do not get opportunities that open the way to a financially secure life.