By Adow Jubat
The attacks on two churches in Garissa caught the worshippers unawares, either headed to church or already in church praying.
Felix Kimanzi, 33, was full of joy as he woke up early to go to church for the morning Mass with his family.
On this Sunday, he was determined not to miss the church service as he did last week, when he was bogged down by other engagements.
Eager to get there on time, he could not wait for his family, as they were taking long to get ready for church, whose choir he could already hear from the house. He left them behind and headed for the church.
Mr Kimanzi, who is grateful to God for saving him from the carnage after an attack on his church, says: “I was walking towards the church, but 20 metres before reaching there, I heard gun shots. I decided to lie down and after a few seconds while still down, I saw four men in blue attires and masked running away from the church.”
The worshipper, who narrowly escaped the attack on the Catholic church that killed at least 16 people and injured 70 others, says he was lucky to be late for the Mass by five minutes.
“What I saw was something I never thought of happening in Kenya. I saw scores of my church mates in pools of blood, some dead, some writhing in pain. This was too much for me,” he said.
Prayers
Another survivor, David Mwangi, who survived with slight injuries, says at the time of the attack, they were deep in prayers and the church was unusually full for the second Mass.
“We were deep in prayers preparing to give our offerings. We first heard a loud bang from outside, which we mistook to be coming from the rooftops. We then heard gunshots and lay down. Everybody was shouting and crying in pain. After a minute we stood up only to find dead bodies lying on the floor with others wailing in pain with blood all over,” he said.
Visibly shaken from the trauma of what he saw, Mr Mwangi says about five masked men wielding AK47 and G3 assault rifles stormed the church and started shooting at the faithful indiscriminately.
