Mourning Kenyans point to militant threat closer to home

At a mortuary in Nairobi, the families of the victims of last week's terror attack on Garissa University are still waiting for the dead to be identified.

Some sobbed as they entered the gates, others sat playing gospel tunes under a makeshift tent and said Kenya should end its military involvement against al-Shabaab militants in neighbouring Somalia.

"They should withdraw so we can look for peace," said John Mika Okodoi, 62, a farmer, whose son Obeddy, 22, was killed in the April 2 attack. The body of the student teacher was still due to be identified by fingerprints, six days after his murder.

"If they don't withdraw then [Shabaab] will be coming [to attack] here; we will be going [to attack] there; they will be coming [to attack] here - this kind of revenge might persist for a very long time," said Mr Okodoi.

Last Thursday, al-Shabaab militants shot their way into a university in the remote northeast, targeting Christians and leaving 148 dead in the worst act of terrorism in east Africa's largest economy in almost two decades.

The Islamist jihadi group, which rose to prominence in Somalia in the mid-2000s and later allied to al-Qaeda, claims it targets Kenya because of its decision to invade in 2011. Following the attack on Garissa University College - the latest in a series of massacres that have killed 400 people in Kenya over the past two years - al-Shabaab promised to turn Kenyan cities "red with blood".

Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's president, this week sent planes to bomb al-Shabaab training grounds in Somalia but even as he vowed to "respond in the severest ways possible", public support for retaliation is waning. Raila Odinga, the opposition leader who backed the invasion when he was prime minister, is calling for a Kenyan withdrawal to safeguard lives.

In the years since Kenya first invaded Somalia, the terrorism threat has shifted closer to home. The Garissa attackers appear to be largely homegrown. Authorities are hunting Mohamed Mohamuda, a former teacher from Garissa, whom they allege masterminded of the attack. Five others - four Kenyans and a Tanzanian - have been arrested in connection with the attack. One attacker who was killed is said to have been a Kenyan who had studied law in Nairobi before his father, a government official, reported him missing last year.

In a speech to the nation, Mr Kenyatta appeared to address the problem for the first time. Kenya, he said, must find ways to confront homegrown terrorism. Domestic radicalisation was conducted "in the full glare of day, in madrassas, in homes and in mosques with rogue Imams", he said. The planners and financiers of the attack "are deeply embedded in our communities". Experts say hundreds of Kenyans who have fought with al-Shabaab in Somalia in recent years have returned home as the group has ceded territory to African forces including Kenya.

Community leaders say Kenyan authorities regularly pursue indiscriminate crackdowns against thousands of ethnic Somali Kenyans, pushing some disaffected Muslim youth towards al-Shabaab.

Salim Ghalgan, chairman of the Muslim Education and Welfare Association in Mombasa, said: "Indeed Muslims feel marginalised. This government has to change the way it handles [Muslims], with security efforts backfiring.

"We are trying to educate [Muslim] youth that these attacks [such as Garissa] are not the way to protect Islam. You cannot justify killing your own brothers and sisters, but imagine the feeling this sort of discrimination leaves behind in people."

Mr Kenyatta denies that Kenya has marginalised and oppressed Muslim youth. The government was focused on delivering infrastructure and investment to under-developed areas, he said.

But Hassan Omar, a Muslim opposition senator and human rights campaigner, said historic and continuing abuses amount to the "collective punishment" of Kenyan Muslims.

"He [ Kenyatta] is burying his head in the sand," said Mr Omar. "Radicalisation here has gone from bad to worse and the government is the one that is leading to this whole radicalisation issue on the basis they do not have a comprehensive strategy.

"It is not just about [improving] infrastructure: it's about basic human rights, being treated fairly under the law, occupation of Muslim lands, withdrawal of troops [from Somalia] as well as intelligence, equipment and preparedness."

For the bereaved, it is all too late. "Politicians cheated - they say there is security when there isn't. Nobody would send their child to northeastern [province] now," said Mr Okodoi. "What are we going to do? Security for Kenya means more than a fence. We have to get communities talking."

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