Imagine the horror...in the early hours of April 2 while students were preparing to write their exams, 147 people were killed in an assault by al-Shabab militants on a university in north-eastern Kenya. Heavily armed attackers stormed Garissa University killing two security guards then firing at random on students. Four of the gunman were eventually surrounded in a dormitory, and died when their suicide vests detonated. Witnesses have confirmed that Christians were singled out and shot. More than 500 students managed to escape, 79 of whom were injured.
Many friends of CES expressed their concern about the tragic events happening in Garissa, Kenya. There is no way to describe how we feel about this atrocity. Vulnerable young people were killed in the early hours as they were rising to prepare for their exams. This is so tragic and it deeply saddens us. The face of evil hides behind the mask of hatred and intolerance.
Yesterdays' terrorist attack took place at the four-year-old Garissa University College, the region’s only higher education facility. Universities are the sites of discussion and debate and the transmission of values that groups may oppose or consider ‘Western,’ which is clearly the case with the attack in Garissa. Only 6% of Garissa county residents have attained secondary level of education or above, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics; most live below the poverty line. This is a very needy area that sadly has been infiltrated by those wishing to destroy Kenya's democratic heritage. It is also an area where Christians are openly persecuted.
I lived in Garissa for three months back in 2003/04. In fact, the seeds of our work in Kenya were sown in this place. There was no university in Garissa at that time. I considered the place relatively safe and I learned much from the people. Teaching at Garissa Boys HS and spending time in a number of Muslim schools gave me a strong sense of what it means for students to learn in such a place as NEP.
This news is grievous and it is a blight on Kenya, my adopted country. People do not differentiate between Northeast or West - without being informed they think Kenya is unsafe, not to be accessed for any reason. There are obvious repercussions for Kenya's economy. I have no concern about travel to Nairobi and from there to western Kenya. The social and economic environment around Kakamega area are so different from what we see in places like Dadaab, Garissa, Mandera and Wajir. Kakamega has always been a welcoming place for Canadians.
Our concern was for one of our former students who is actually attending the University at Garissa. She graduated from Ibinzo Girls HS in 2011 and is now in her third year in the Bachelor of Education program. CES supported Mildred Ominde for four years and she was a fine student. She is part of the CES family as an alumnus. Often with some of our students who have been orphaned from an early age, it is difficult to find contact information through direct family. Today we have just heard from CES Kenya and it has been confirmed that Mildred is safe and now at a shelter in Nairobi. We are grateful; yet, saddened as we think about those who died. Today the soul of Kenya has been wounded. We grieve the loss of these young people who died essentially because they were Christian.
May the message of Easter circle the globe to embrace us all
Michael FrederiksenPresident, CES Canada
