By Adow Jubat and Boniface Ongeri
It was a scene from hell with overturned wooden benches, pools of blood and the stench of death.
Face down under a table in the African Inland Church in Garissa lay the body of a woman, cut down by a hail of bullets on the very day she had dedicated to worship and give thanks to God for his blessings.
She was among 17 Kenyans killed when four cowardly, masked gunmen chose to turn their weapons on worshippers in two churches in Garissa, leaving behind shattered lives.
However, the number of dead could go up.
Those who survived the attack inside the AIC church ran out only to meet a burst of heavy gunfire that claimed more lives. Up to 60 badly wounded worshippers were rushed to hospital.
The heartbreaking pictures from the two churches, many of which we cannot show because of issues of taste and sensitivity captured the somber mood that engulfed a town that has borne the brunt of reprisal attacks by sympathisers of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab.
What started as a normal peaceful Sunday for the minority Christian faithful the town turned bloody after suspected members of the Islamist terrorist group Al Shabaab carried out triple grenade attacks in two churches and at a market in the town simultaneously.
Twelve people died at the AIC Churches but the number increased after six more succumbed to serious injuries at the Garissa Provincial hospital where they had been rushed for treatment.
Garissa town was in shock as word spread that armed militants had killed eight women, four men, three children and two police officers.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga will tomorrow lead a Government security team to the town that is expected to include acting Internal Security minister Yusuf Haji.
Also expected in the town is Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka who yesterday called for calm in the wake of the attacks that left up to 17 people dead by the time of going to press.
