Garissa University College attackers butchered some victims with knives when they ran out of bullets, a first-year survivor has said.
Amos Simiyu said he witnessed the slaughter of his friends while hiding beneath a staircase with another.
Simiyu said some students may have worked with the attackers and their rooms used as places to hide ammunition.
“I believe that the terrorists brought in the weapons earlier than the day of the attack. I could see them go to add their arsenal from some location within the dormitory, as they asked where others had been kept,” he said.
He told the Star on Tuesday that his Tana River hostel was the first to be raided.
“They hurled grenades at any point they suspected there were people below the stairs but God kept protecting us as the grenades hit the wall and fell,” he said
Simiyu said he and his friend were the first to be rescued by a KDF soldier who took them to the Garissa military barracks.
He said more students would have been saved had the Recce squad arrived earlier.
He noted that many students would have been saved had the Recce Squad arrived earlier.
A student among 29 others who were in a Christian meeting told LA Times they were praying when the terrorists arrived.
A barrel of a gun appeared at the door before a woman leading the prayers was shot dead, said 25-year-old Duncan Obwamu, one of the seven survivors.
“He didn’t say anything, but you could see from the look on his face he was very happy,” Obwamu said.
Hit in the arm and shoulder, and covered in the blood of other students, he played dead while the gunman kicked bodies to ascertain death.
“I heard him laugh as he communicated with the others outside. He was very happy about what he’d done,” Obwamu said.
Another student said the attack went on unimpeded for the three hours in which he crouched behind the low, half-built wall of a washroom.
GIdeon Nyabwengi, 19, said he heard his best friend begging for mercy while pretending to be a Muslim. The friend was shot dead for failing to recite a prayer.
Nyabwengi said he heard gunshots and crying as students were brought from the dorms in groups, asked to lie down and then killed.
“When we went to that university, we thought what kind of university is this? The lack of security was a major thing. When you got your letter of admission to Garissa some people were saying it wasn’t safe to go. This thing was being predicted,” he told LA Times.
“It’s like we were being experimented on. When this university was being put in that place, I don’t think it was the right place.”
He said some of his friends advised him to acquire a gun if he was going to study in Garissa, adding that the students were uncertain about their security since the day of admission.
Another student, 22-year-old Stanley Muli, awaited rescue while hiding in his wardrobe but none came for two hours.
“I was just praying [to] God that the [Kenya Defence Forces] would come,” he told LA Times on Sunday. “I was just thinking how come they have taken so long, because the barracks are near.”
“The government failed to protect us. We are angry, because we lost some of our best friends. How come security wasn’t there when we were at the university? They took no care.”
– the-star.co.ke
