The son of a Kenyan official participated in the slaughter of Christians at Garissa University.
The slain terror suspect Abdirahim Abdullahi, in a white shirt seen this undated photograph before he crossed over to Somalia. (Photo/Courtesy)
The Islamic extremists who slaughtered 147 people at a college in Kenya as they shouted “God is great” appeared to have planned extensively, even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray, survivors said Friday. A young woman is helped away from the school after the massacre. (Yahoo)
A Kenyan government official’s son, who was a law school student, was one of the four terrorists who murdered 148 Christians at Garissa University. Abdirahim Abdullahi, son of a government official in the northern Mandera county bordering Somalia, was one of four gunmen who stormed the college campus.
The Gulf Today reported:
The son of a Kenyan government official was one of the masked gunmen who killed nearly 150 at a university last week, the interior ministry said on Sunday, as Kenyan churches hired armed guards to protect their Easter congregations.
Pope Francis decried Thursday’s attack in his Easter on Sunday service, praying for those killed by gunmen who hunted down Christians while sparing Muslims.
At one church in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa, worshippers were evacuated and a bomb disposal unit deployed due to a suspicious vehicle parked outside the church.
Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said Abdirahim Abdullahi, son of a government official in the northern Mandera county bordering Somalia, was one of four gunmen who stormed the college campus in northeastern town of Garissa.
“The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home… and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened,” Njoka told Reuters in a text message.
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday said the planners and financiers of militant attacks were “deeply embedded” within Kenyan communities and urged Muslims to do more to fight radicalisation.
A Garissa-based official said the government was aware Abdullahi, a former University of Nairobi law student, had joined the militant group Al Shabaab after graduating in 2013. “He was a very brilliant student. But then he got these crazy ideas,” said the official.
Bodies of Christian students lay scattered on a classroom floor at Garissa University. (TA)