Kenya has been the scene of various attacks attributed to terrorist elements. This is since in the 80s when The Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the PLO. In late 90s, another attack of the US embassy in Nairobi was again bombed. This did not take long before Paradise Hotel owned by the Israeli was attacked by terrorist approximately four years after the US embassy bombed. In 2013, 67 lives claimed by the militant of the Al-Shabaab, Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.
Life was normal for the students of a University college in the remote part of Kenya, North East, which borders Somalia. This was on a Wednesday of the month not until masked gunmen on the dawn of Thursday of the month stormed the fortified campus hostels shooting indiscriminately at the fleeing students before taking several hundred hostages. This ended when four masked gunmen donated their suicide vests, with a fifth arrested. This attack left at least 147 dead, mostly students, with survivors afterward recounting how the militants singled out and executed Christians.
The attacks have raised a lot of questions on the security in Kenya, that is, the security strategies. This brought about some comments that this is a mix of corruption and the structural alienation of Kenya’s Muslim population. It was said that earlier on, there has been a lot of foreigners managed to acquire Passports within few weeks of sneaking into the country.
It took security services several hours to arrive at the site of the siege because of the bad roads in the area. This could not be the reason as others said there are no police stations situated around the university and also in most parts of the county. This led to the delay of security service to reach the scene.
These acts of terrorism attack have not only affected Kenyans by robbing them their loved ones and leaving them traumatized, but also the economy of the country has been greatly affected .For instant, the tourism sector has been greatly sector has suffered a major blow as some members of international community have issued travel advisories to their citizens who may have been planning to come to Kenya. Example, the missile attack in Mombasa resulted cancellation of the flights to Kenya by the Israel.
Questions a rises on whom to blame or be blamed about this several terror attacks in Kenya. This has made people live in dilemma whether The government should remove the military service in Somalia to make people live in peace and reduce the attacks in Kenya or the government to leave the militaries in Somalia to continue fighting the terrorists in Somalia. This may bring about different reasons to why leave or not. Removing the KDF from Somalia will not bring about any change because before the KDF was put in place, attacks such as bombing US embassy happened without KDF in Somalia.
Threats from the attackers has been all over about more of attacks on Kenya specifically where large number of population gather such as churches, institutions and airports just as it was In Paris France which left scarce of people. Maybe there is a reason for all this attacks not only in Kenya but all around the world. Even if KDF move away from Somalia, attacks will still be there as others claims it be in the Bible according to Mathew 24, signs of the end.
To help terminate this unethical behavior, people join together in prayers as the Muslim brothers help condemn this type of attacks. Also more stringent legal measures need to be imposed in the country in order to compliment the law of attacks and end the loopholes that will subject Kenya to any future terror attacks.
By Akumu Dalton Omondi
Moi University.
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