Garissa attack: How hope has triumphed over pain and fear

Residents mark the first anniversary of Garissa university terror attack which killed 148 students. [Photo/Standard]

April 2, 2018 marked the third anniversary of the terrorist attack on Garissa University College. According to reports, 148 people, majority of them students, died while others were left with wounds.

Despite the fact that the incident was one of those painful and trying moments for the country, the nation’s resilience after the attack collectively made Kenyans victorious over the terrorists.

Terror groups, by their very nature, carry out such violent attacks with certain objectives in mind.

Their goals can be political, social or economic. The issue of religion for those groups that portray themselves as religious is just but a smokescreen.

Islam as a motiff

To paraphrase the comment of renown counterterrorism expert Bill Durudie, for example, on the so- called ‘islamists’ organizations, Islam is just a motiff; not motive for their brutal actions.

In the case of Garissa university attack, I guess the Al Shabaab terror group harboured more than one destructive aim for unleashing the terror which ranks as the second worst terrorist attack on Kenya’s soil after the 1998 Al-Qaida- sponsored US embassy bombing in Nairobi in which over 200 Kenyans and 12 Americans died. In that attack, 5,000 casualties were reported.

By targeting the biggest learning institution in North Eastern region, Al Shabaab had for the first time declared war on the local education sector.

The intention was, and still is when you look at attacks like the recent one on Qarsa Primary School in Wajir County where three nonlocal teachers lost their lives, to halt knowledge acquisition in the region.

The intention is to replace enlightenment with ignorance, which would then help them to easily corrupt the minds of young people with their destructive ideology.

The other reason for their attack could perhaps have been their fearful realization - just like the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria - that it is easier for governments and countries to defeat terrorism with education than with guns.

To this effect, young Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai once said that “With guns, you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism”. But the good thing is that we responded not by closing Garissa University College as Al Shabaab wanted, but by strengthening the institution both security-wise and in terms of institutional status by making it a fully chartered university.

This has recorded a significant improvement in enrollment rates for students from 700 students prior to the terror attack to 1,195 students currently.

The Al Shabaab’s other goal that spectacularly failed to materialize include their desire to cause suspicion and friction between the local community and security forces.

Perhaps, too, the intention was to bring to a halt the region’s development and break the long history of religious tolerance, particularly when you consider the sectarian nature of the large-scale attack they wrought at the university.

Falsehoods

What I found more disturbing was the announcement by Al Shabaab that what they did was in retaliation against the injustices meted out to Muslims and Somalis in Kenya and Somalia.

This is a blatant lie since their action was in fact aimed at compounding the problems of the communities in question.

The reality is that Al Shabaab is a thorn in the flesh of Somalis and Muslims, both in Kenya and Somalia.

In fact, our Kenyan troops, who include Muslims, were donated to join the AMISOM forces in Somalia in order to liberate the 99 percent Muslim country from the group’s evil grip.

So it is totally bizzare when they pretentiously describe themselves as “defenders of Muslims and Somalis”.

Just like the way 9/ 11 attack changed America, the 2015 Garissa University attack caused a drastic review of our national approach to the war on terror.

There has been much success even though there are concerns about human rights violations in some of the counterterrorism operations.

Nations with the best trained security personnel and sophistication such as the United States, United Kingdom and France also grapple with terror attacks once in a while in what shows that it’s not possible to foil every terror attack being planned by terrorist groups.

The third anniversary of the Garissa University terror attack should not only remind us of the pain that was inflicted upon us, but also the strength we exhibited through patriotism, unity, love and resilience that made us victors in the end, and allow them to reenergize us to work even harder and smarter to defeat the menace going forward.

Mr Mohamed comments on sociopolitical [email protected]