Kenyans Identify and Mourn Relatives Killed in Attack on University - New York Times

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A Salvation Army officer prayed on Saturday for relatives of those killed in Thursday’s attack at Garissa University College. Credit Will Swanson for The New York Times

NAIROBI, Kenya — They gathered by the hundreds outside the Chiromo funeral home and morgue, where the bodies of their loved ones had been brought. Some sat waiting for their turn to go inside, while others stood in a long line. Their faces went pale and their eyes teared up every time someone emerged, wailing, weeping or collapsing on a companion’s shoulder.

“Why?” one man cried, moving his hands up and down. Kenya Red Cross workers, holding both of his arms, took him to a tent to meet a counselor.

The families were at the morgue on Saturday to identify relatives killed on Thursday by armed men from the Shabab, the Somali Islamist extremist group, who stormed a university campus in Garissa, separating Muslims from Christians and shooting the Christians. In the end, nearly 150 students were killed in the massacre, Kenya’s worst terrorist attack since the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy in Nairobi.

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At the Nyayo National Stadium, in another part of Nairobi, a caravan of eight buses carrying hundreds of survivors arrived from Garissa, about 230 miles northeast of Nairobi, under heavy rain as their relatives anxiously waited. Some wept, while others jumped up and down and waved their arms joyously as they saw their loved ones.

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A woman is assisted by volunteers after visiting a morgue in Nairobi. Credit Will Swanson for The New York Times

“That’s my brother,” Conny Oumah shouted as she ran to hug her brother, Vittalis Opiyo. “I am so happy he is safe.”

Roselyne Oganogo waited with relatives for hours for her 19-year-old sister, Eunice, a freshman at Garissa University College.

“Thank God she is safe,” Ms. Oganogo said as Eunice emerged from the crowd of students, her face still drawn in disbelief.

In a statement published on Saturday on the website of Radio Andalus, a station affiliated with the Shabab, the group said the attack on the university was in retaliation for killings carried out by Kenyan troops fighting the militants in Somalia.

The violence will continue, the Shabab warned. “Kenyan cities will run red with blood,” said a statement that appeared on other Shabab-affiliated websites and Twitter accounts, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist activity.

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Psychologists, welfare workers and volunteers were also at the morgue on Saturday. “They are in grief, traumatized,” said Terry Wachira, from the Kenya Counselors and Psychologists Association. “Some have broken down.”

One man, Simon Karanja, said his sister-in-law, Anna, was a business student at the university, a Christian who enjoyed gospel music and hoped to get a degree that would guarantee her a job in the corporate world. On Friday, Mr. Karanja, along with other relatives, was still hopeful that she would turn up alive.

On Saturday afternoon, they identified her body at the morgue.

“We were in shock,” said the soft-spoken Mr. Karanja.

The attack has been widely condemned. President Obama called President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya on Friday to express condolences and emphasize his support for the country in the aftermath of what White House officials called “despicable attacks.” Mr. Obama reassured Mr. Kenyatta that he still planned to visit Nairobi in July, on his first trip to his father’s homeland since taking office.

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A woman who identified the body of a relative. Credit Will Swanson for The New York Times

In a statement afterward, the Obama administration said the two leaders would use the July visit to “discuss how to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation and continue to work together to build a safer and more prosperous future for Kenya and the broader region.”

In a televised address on Saturday, Mr. Kenyatta called the massacre “an attack on our humanity” and declared three days of national mourning.

Mr. Kenyatta also confirmed that Kenyan security forces had killed four of the terrorists, while arresting five.

Survivors said the attackers had told the students that if they came out of their dorms, their lives would be spared. Once outside, the students were ordered to lie on the ground. They were shot in the back of the head. Others were taunted and told to call their parents and let them know that the assault was payback for Kenya’s involvement in Somalia. They, too, were shot.

Outside the morgue and stadium on Saturday, some onlookers expressed frustration with the Kenyan government.

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Eunice Oganogo, 19, a freshman at the college, was comforted by relatives at the Nyayo National Stadium. Credit Will Swanson for The New York Times

“These guys were playing with the students,” Samuel Moroto, a lawmaker, said of the attackers. “Where was security all this time?” The Kenyan Army entered Somalia in 2011 after a series of kidnappings that targeted tourists along the coast. The forces are now part of an African Union mission that is fighting the Shabab. Kenyans are divided about whether their country should remain in Somalia.

Alex Kangethe, 50, a taxi driver, said the troops were needed there. “The Kenyan defense forces should stay in Somalia,” said Mr. Kangethe. “Imagine if they were not there.” But Paul Okiring, 25, disagreed. Recalling the soldiers “could help,” he said.

Last year, after a number of attacks by the Shabab that rocked the country, the government held a counterterrorism operation known as Operation Usalama, or Operation Peace, in which thousands of undocumented refugees, immigrants and Kenyan citizens were rounded up and arrested. Human rights groups had criticized the operation, saying it discriminated against refugees and Kenyans with ethnic Somali backgrounds. Mr. Kangethe believes that it should be revived.

“They need to clean the houses one by one,” he said. “It is not harassment, but to check.”

There is concern here that this latest attack may fuel tensions in Kenya along ethnic and religious lines.

“Unless government acts swiftly, we will have a social problem,” said Mr. Moroto, the lawmaker.

A spokesman for the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Adan Wachu, condemned the attackers.

“My utmost condolences to the families of the innocent children,” he said tearfully. “If they were men enough, they would have faced men in uniform, not students.”

Correction: April 4, 2015

An earlier version of this article misspelled part of the name of the funeral home and morgue. It is the Chiromo Funeral Parlor, not Chiroma.

Peter Baker contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on April 5, 2015, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Kenyans Identify and Mourn Relatives Killed in Attack on University.

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