Nine months after al-Shabab attack; Garissa University reopens

Nine months after the deadliest attack by the Somali-based group, claiming the lives of nearly 150, Garissa University College reopened as Kenya continues to recover from the shock of the massacre.

Security has since been ramped up and a police post erected on the campus. However, the 650 or so students of the university who were transferred to Garissa's sister campus in Eldoret, Western Kenya are not expected to return to Garissa as it reopens.

The 109 injured students from the incident will now be receiving 1,500 US dollar towards each student's tuition fees and living allowances.

The attack took place on April 2 last year, when Somalia's al-Shabaab held the university hostage for 11 hours, separated the Muslim from Christians, and asked them to recite the Koran. Those who immediately confessed they were Christians were the first ones shot. A total of 148 lost their lives in the terror attack.

A solemn ceremony was held in the campus where Ahmed Warfa, the university's principal, explained that professors and staff were recalled back to work assuring them of the tighter security measure implemented.

"I wish I was armed and trained on use of firearm that night. I would have fought with the attackers and at least saved some of my students", he said recalling the painful incident.

Eager to pursue the road to recovery, the university is expecting to open its service to sixty returning students who choose to stay home after the incident rather than move to another school.

"There is also a need to put in measures for the staff who were traumatized during the massacre," Kenyan political analyst, Brian Singono Wanyama said.

"For the government, the reopening of Garissa University is a show of confidence on security issues. It allows the government to send out a message to al-Shabab. Closing the university completely would have been an acknowledgement of being defeated by a terror group."