Memorial events were held in Kenya on Saturday, 2 April, as Kenyans marked the anniversary of the day Al-Shabaab militants stormed the university campus in Garissa – in Kenya’s volatile east, near the Somalia border – and slaughtered 147 mostly Christian students.
This follows the welcome dropping of proposed religious laws by the government that would have brought state control of religion in the country. The so-called Religious Societies Rules 2015 were suggested in order to regulate churches and mosques in Kenya.
‘Like it happened yesterday’
A tree-planting ceremony and procession took place at the parent campus, Moi University in Eldoret, in West Kenya, where Garissa students were moved while the university was closed (it re-opened in January). Everlyne planted a tree, despite the fact that she is still recovering from injuries sustained during the attack and moves around with the help of a crutch.
In Eldoret, mourners carried placards that read: ‘The death of a student, any student, is a big loss and detriment to that family’s dream. #147notjustanumber.’ Some chanted, ‘We want peace! 147 is not just a number! Forever in our hearts!’
Meanwhile, in Garissa, around 100 people participated in a marathon. Ali Awdoll, one of the marathon organisers, told the BBC: ‘As we try to mourn the innocent lives, it’s like it happened yesterday. The images of the dead bodies keep on playing in my mind. It was really a traumatising experience.’ He said the runners were participating as ‘a gesture of the peace and humanity that we lost ... There is no ‘we’ and ‘they’ in this whole thing; we are humanity and we all have one common enemy – the terrorists are our common enemy’.
Garissa Township MP, Aden Duale, told the BBC: ‘Together as a country, from the north to the south, to the west to east, from the Muslims to Christians ... together we must fight all forms of terror.’
