BY PIUS MAUNDU
@piusmaundu
Pay each family that lost kin in Garissa attack Sh 2 million, university students tell government
The government should pay at
least Shs2 million to each of the families that lost their kin in the Garissa
University College terror attack, university students said yesterday.
In addition, the students want
the government to “completely restructure and overhaul” the country’s security
system, and to install a memorial stone to remember their 142 colleagues killed
by gunmen on Thursday.
Speaking yesterday in Nairobi
when they marched to the Office of the President to present the raft of interventions
following tragedy, the students drawn from both public and private universities
said that the government had failed to secure university students.
“We are here to mourn our
departed colleagues and tell the government that as a generation we are not
ready to die,” said Felix Okumu, a Kenyatta University student.
He said that governments are
mandated to protect their citizens and that the Garissa attack showed that President
Uhuru Kenyatta’s government was performing dismally in that front.
“You cannot pay life and you
cannot even pay for the future of the youths killed,” said Mr Okumu adding that
the Shs2 million compensation would be a goodwill gesture by the government to
the bereaved families who had invested heavily and had high hopes in their
children.
Similar sentiments were echoed by
several other students who joined the procession through Kenyatta Avenue,
Kimathi Street, Moi Avenue before culminating on Harambee Avenue.
“We need the government erect a
police post near each university,” said Vincent Opara bemoaning that currently
universities are manned by unarmed guards.
Except for chanting and waving of
twigs and bougainvillea flowers by the youth in dozens, the procession largely
peaceful.
At Moi Avenue next to the statute
of Tom Mboya, they lit candles, prayed and sang, occasionally vowing not to
forget their “comrades,” the popular euphemism for college colleagues.
Bystanders who initially seemed unsettled
as the chanting youth approached soon engaged their smartphones and clicked as
the trail of passed with ice cream vendors in pursuit.
Nelly Chepngetich, a woman who
followed the procession from the National Archives said: “When our children are
being killed, it is hurting for us parents.”
The single mother of six
challenged parents to reign on their children, especially teenagers not to end
up training as extremists.
Among the students in the procession
Wilson Muema, an Economics and Finance student at Kenyatta University
poignantly held up an enlarged mugshot of Cyrus Sila Mutuku, one of the
students fallen by the jihadists’ bullets.
“He was my closest friend,”
explained the teenager. “We schooled together in high school and I was more
than shocked to learn that he was among those killed by al-Shabaab.”
Just like the rest of the
students, Mr Muema said that he expected the government to beef up security at
universities.
“If the government will have a
response unit close to all universities the rate of casualties in the event of
an attack would be minimized,” said Mcnab Bwonde, a Technical University of
Kenya student.
Outside the Office of the
President, the students chanted some more and taunted security officers manning
the government offices.
“We have presented our demands,”
said Mr Okumu when a group that had accessed the offices housing the Ministry
of Interior and Coordination emerged.
The students said that they will
follow up to see that their demands are acted upon, and should the petition be
shelved they would picket.
So far, the government through
the Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia has pledged to foot all the funeral
expenses of the 148 people killed in the attack, something the students felt
was not enough.
“We don’t want a government who will just buy
a coffin and hire a hearse to transport the bodies for burial,” Mr Okumu said.
“This is not what the youths who
perished were expecting.”
On the possibility that terror
groups could be eyeing universities for recruitment, Pelly Maganga, a Moi
University student leader challenged his colleagues to have their priorities
right.
“As students we need to change our
perspectives on how we need to lead our lives,” he said.
