The Garrisa University College: Terror Attacks In Kenya (Essay Sample)

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Terror Attacks in Kenya
Garissa is a mid-sized city located 230 miles from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, and 60 miles South East of Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp. Garissa is a desert city with a population of a little over 10,000 people. The population is predominantly Cushitic, as most of the people in this region have relocated from Somalia, the war-ravaged country that borders Kenya to the North East. The county of Garissa has one institution of higher learning, Garissa University College, a constituent college of the University of Nairobi, which is the largest university in East and Central Africa. On the morning of April 2, 2015, Gunmen from the Al-Qaeda linked Somali terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, attacked Garissa University College, killing 147 young, promising and educated students. Muslim students were separated from their Christian counterparts, and the Christians were shot in the head. The attack was just one in a series of attacks leveled against non-Muslims in Kenya in a war that has seen more than 500 lives lost over a period of three years. In this paper, I will discuss the impacts that the attacks against my ilk have had on my social and religious life.
The Garrisa University College attack is the deadliest attack on Kenyan soil since the 1998 Al-Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Nairobi that claimed 224 people. The Al-shabaab had also staged a four-day siege on a Nairobi mall on 21st September 2013, claiming 71 lives, most of them Christians. On 17th June, 2014, Al-Shabaab militants took over the coastal town at dusk and mercilessly butchered 57 non-Muslim residents. In November 2014, attackers boarded a Mandera-bound bus and executed 26 passengers who could not recite the Muslim profession of faith. In December, the same year, Al-Shabaab militants executed 36 quarry workers who could not recite an Islam prayer. There is a religious war raging in the North-Eastern and Coastal regions of Kenya.
The radicalization of Muslim youth in the country has led to sporadic attacks against Christians in the coastal region over the last three years. As a Christian living in the coastal city of Mombasa, I live in constant fear. 70 percent of the population in Mombasa is comprised of Muslims, and they do not care to hide their disdain towards Christians. The survivors of these attacks claim that the Al-Shabaab militants order their victims to recite parts of the Holy Quran, failure to which one is instantly shot dead. To be safe, I have had to learn to recite the Quran in Arabic and to recite Islamic prayers. This way, I can talk my way out of death in case I find myself in a similar terrorist attack. Over the last year, I have read the Quran more times than I have read the Bible; I am in a crisis of faith. But then again, I would rather be safe than sorry.
The Kenya Police Service is the most corrupt institution in one of the most corrupt nations in the world (Hidalgo). Most officers in the police force are Christians who stigmatize Muslims through illegal police dragnets. The highways of Mombasa are punctuated by numerous roadblocks that require one to produce their national identification document in the pretense of hunting terrorists. Muslims are subjected to constant profiling by the law-enforcers. Born of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, I bear the surname Mohammed, and it is really hard to convince the offi...