Court awards 148 Garissa terror victims Sh500m

Security officers man the gate at Garissa University College, April 2, 2015. [File, Standard]

The government’s failure to give a plausible counter to an allegation by Garissa University terror attack victims in 2015 is among the reasons the court awarded them at least Sh500 million.

The allegation was that a senior police officer flew his daughter-in-law to Mombasa in a plane that was required to fly special units for the rescue mission.

The victims told High Court Judges Anthony Ndung’u, Mugure Thande, and David Kemei that on August 2, 2015, the General Service Unit- Recce Squad was to be flown to the university to deal with the attackers.

However, they got late courtesy of a senior police officer who had flown his daughter-in-law to Mombasa.

The victims argued that the situation could have been different if the officers were facilitated to respond quickly.

Despite the government claiming that the victims had no proof, it never provided its side of the story on what transpired, causing the officers to arrive late to the attack scene.

At the same time, the court found that although it was necessary to have Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) intervene, the government did not comply with the law on the deployment of the disciplined forces.

The Judges found that the government never filed a report before Parliament as required by the law.

The three-judge-bench was were of the view that there was a major blunder by the authorities for failing to act on intelligence that there was a looming attack.  

They observed that warning letters to students were dismissed as ‘April Fool’s Day’ banter.

The bench headed by Justice Ndung’u awarded each of the 148 persons who were killed in the incident Sh3 million.

The 15 students who sued the government got at least Sh56 million, with Rachel Wanjiru Gikonyo getting the highest amount of Sh10 million.

Wanjiru who was wheeled to the courtroom pensively listened as the judges delivered their verdict.

Her face could not hide her emotions as judges read about her ordeal. In her case filed alongside Kituo cha Sheria, Wanjiru told the court she was a first-year student, pursuing a Bachelor of Education (Science).

She narrated that sometime in December 2014, students received threats through letters that had been dropped at Garissa Road, warning them to leave the institution.

Wanjiru said that sometime in March 2015, the university principal had asked the County Commissioner to beef up security.

However, for a population of 1,000 students, the court heard that the number of officers was only increased by two to four.

She painted a picture of a dismissive but unprepared government.

On the fateful day, Wanjiru recounted that she was in the classroom at around 5.30 am with Christian Union members for morning devotion.

She said that shortly after holding hands for a prayer, they heard a loud bang at the door and two masked men stormed in.

To their horror, the first terrorist shot the student who was leading the prayers in the head as they embarked on their murderous mission.

She contemplated jumping out of the window, but she feared that they terrorists might pursue her.

Wanjiru laid facing the wall, waiting for her turn to be shot.

The victim said that the two attackers first concentrated on students who had huddled on one side of the room. They then shot her on the back and one bullet penetrated through the rib cage.

Wanjiru testified that the terrorist later started shooting the students in the legs to confirm whether they were dead.

In a room with 30 students, only seven survived but she was left disabled.

Other students who were maimed got between Sh7 million and Sh1.2 million as compensation.

The three Judges were of the view that had the government been swift enough, and acted on the prior intelligence, lives would have been saved.

“The respondents cannot escape from the acts and or omission. There was a clear dereliction of duty on the part of the respondents. They gave the attackers time to continue with the carnage. Had the police conducted themselves in a more professional manner by being preventive, expeditious and efficient the attack at the university would have been prevented or at the very least the carnage limited,” the Judges said.

In the case, the government and the university denied liability. They claimed that they did their best as majority of the students were saved unharmed.

At the same time, the Attorney General told the court that Recce's delay to get to the scene was not of their own making.

He insisted that the military and the police worked together to end the carnage.

On the intelligence report, the government argued that there were more than 200 places that had been flagged and not necessarily universities.

However, the Judges said that they ought to have known that universities were most attractive places that attackers would have targeted.