Kenya’s interior ministry also said “one suspected terrorist” had been arrested attempting “to flee scene”.

At least 15 people have been killed, according to a police source and media reports, while Kenya’s official National Disaster Operation Centre said a further 65 had been injured, many suffering from gunshot wounds.

The Kenya Red Cross, which is leading the medical response to the attack, said there were “an unknown number of student hostages” and that “50 students have been safely freed”.

Rage did not give details of casualties but said “there are very many.” The town of Garissa is around 150 kilometres west of Somalia and has in the past been targeted by militants from al-Shabab.

“Gunmen forced their way into Garissa University by shooting at the guards manning the main gate at around 5.30am,” said Kenya Police Chief Joseph Boinet.

“The gunmen shot indiscriminately while inside the university compound.” The sprawling campus, on the outskirts of the garrison town, has both teaching areas as well as residential blocks.

The university has several hundred students from different parts of Kenya. The number of teachers and students trapped inside the campus was unclear as gunfire and explosions were heard coming from the site.

“Police ... engaged the gunmen in a fierce shootout, however the attackers retreated and gained entry into one of the hostels,” Boinet said, adding that reinforcements had arrived and were “flushing out the gunmen.”

Terrified students streamed out of buildings, some young men shirtless, as arriving police officers hunkered down, taking cover. The gunmen had opened fire at guards, triggering a “fierce shootout” with police guarding student dorms, Kenya’s National Police Service said in a written statement.

The attackers managed to get into the dorms, raising the possibility of hostage-taking.

Kenya’s National Disaster Operations Center said 29 people wounded during the attack have been admitted to a local hospital, four of them in critical condition. Most have gunshot wounds, the centre said

Police and military surrounded the buildings and were trying to secure the area, police officer Musa Yego said.

The statement said police and members of other security agencies were “engaged in an elaborate process of flushing out the gunmen from the hostels.”

Kenya’s northern and eastern regions, which are near the Somali border, have suffered many attacks blamed on the al-Qa’ida-linked Somali group, al-Shabab, which has vowed retribution on Kenya for sending troops into Somalia to fight the militants. Kenya sent its troops there in 2011 to fight al-Shabab militants following cross-border attacks. Al-Shabab responded with a deadly attack on a mall in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, in 2013.

Last month, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for attacks in the county of Mandera on the Somali border in which twelve people died. Four of them died in an attack on the convoy of Mandera County Governor Ali Roba.

Police statistics show that 312 people have been killed in al-Shabab attacks in Kenya from 2012 to 2014. Thirty-eight people were killed and 149 wounded in Garissa in the same period, according to police statistics.

The siege is over - over 147 dead and 79 wounded.


Serious questions should be being asked regarding Kenyan intelligence/security.

polite_gandalf wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2015 at 7:35am:


I reckon serious questions should be asked regarding Islamic ideology which motivates these terrorists.

Baronvonrort wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2015 at 9:50am:


Why?  We know they are motivated by a distorted interpretation of Islamic teachings Baron.   What we need to do is start teaching them otherwise.



I reckon we should put satellites in orbit over Somalia which

beam radio signals so strong that their fillings vibrate the real message of peace and goodwill in Islam to them.

"Peace summarises everything in Islam, because it means

submitting your will to God,

so you acquire peace through it," he said.

"When I'm following its [i.e. ISLAM's] teachings,

I know that my own actions are in line     with what my creator wants,

and hence I am at peace with myself, [with] my community and the rest of the world."