One month later, Garissa University students speak on recovery, kin relive shattered dreams

“Scars are not injuries but a healing. After an injury, a scar is what makes you whole.”

One month today, after the Garissa University attack, these words of British fiction writer China Miéville resonate with eight students still admitted at the Kenyatta National Hospital undergoing specialised treatment. The terrorist attack claimed 148 lives, including 142 of their colleagues.

In the last one week, the students have been moved from the emergency ward 42 to the private wing located on tenth floor.

James Mothangi, Anderson Owala and Ben are the first students we meet who spend their day in a cubicle they share in the private wing at KNH listening to music off their mobile phones though occasionally Ben retreats to his bed to listen to political debates.

On Thursday afternoon, Ben was listening to live parliamentary proceedings intrigued by the legislators’ oratory dexterity or probably in the hope that as one month is marked since the terrorist attack, members of the National National Assembly and Senate would send heartfelt recovery wishes.

James was shot on both legs and has undergone three surgeries and is due for another on Monday, whereas Ben is nursing gunshot wounds on his thigh.

Multiple injuries

Anderson, a First Year student terms his improvement as remarkable, but believes that surviving with multiple gunshot wounds from the ordeal was nothing short of a miracle.

“I was shot five times and one of the bullets, penetrated into my mouth, injured my lips and split my tongue and telling my story is evidence that a small step every day leads to recovery,” Anderson told The Standard on Saturday in an interview from his bed in ward 10A.

Another bullet scathed his head; his knees, chest and palm were not spared either on the cold Thursday morning on April 2. He was part of the students saying morning prayers and though he says the events unfolded quite fast, the four weeks in hospital have enabled him to think about his future and anchored his dream to change the lives of his community.

“I look forward to completing my studies and become a teacher of History and Business Studies and teach students to be productive self-reliant individuals,” says Anderson, 20, who is the second born in a family of five.

Mercy Chepkorir, 21, a Second Year Business Management student, had just had her midday meal when The Standard on Saturday team visited the ward. She explained that the pain from the gunshot wounds and fracture have lessened.

The third born in a family of four, says her parents in Bomet was dejected and devastated when they could not trace her the first five hours after the attack. She was among the first students to be airlifted to Nairobi for specialised treatment and later called her parents to assure them that she was alive but injured.

Evelynne Chepkemoi, 21, is grateful that she has graduated from not walking at all to taking aided steps using crutches in the four-week hospital stay.

The Second Year Bachelor of Business Management student told The Standard on Saturday that though the journey to recovery has been physically and emotionally painful, the healing of the wounds presents a better tomorrow for those who were injured in the attack and those who escaped unscathed.

“I have some implants in my legs that I will have to bear in the next one or two years as I use crutches before I graduate to walking unaided,” she said.

She looks forward to the visiting hours that are twice daily because it’s a time to catch up with family.

Though the events of April 2, remain etched in her mind Risper Nyang’au, a First Year student, says her progress is marked by the ability to sit properly, and advanced to using a wheelchair around hospital corridors while she uses crutches for the daily walks. She was shot in the thighs and knees and remembers the long wait on the cold classroom floor before the Kenya Defense Forces rescued them.

That Risper may have to stay with a plaster for another two months to align her bones before she can walk again, is a small price she has to pay compared to the numerous injuries she sustained.

Chilling news

Her dream to become a Maths and Chemistry teacher are not in vain and as she aspires to pursue a Masters and Doctorate in the sciences so that she can become a lecturer in the university in coming years.

 “When I recover, I look forward to the scholarships promised because my dream to become a science lecturer is not dampened. It’s more strengthened because I was attacked when working towards my goal,” she said.

The 2013 KCSE student at Omonayo Secondary School in Nyamira County, says that scoring a B in the national examinations was an affirmation that being the last born in a family of six and the only one to attend a university, she held the mantle to bring change to the village.

“If I give up at this point, people at home will not value education so I have to solider on” Risper added.

She looks up to her elder brother Charles, who has walked with her while in school and believed that she would uplift their parents (who are subsistence farmers) and the community in Kisii County that has few students in institutions of higher learning.

Daniel Kisangu and his wife Faith visit their daughter Catherine Alice Malita daily.

She is one of the students receiving specialised care and they term her recovery as promising, but they wish that she leaves hospital soon to continue with her studies and achieve the goal of becoming a History and Kiswahili teacher.

Catherine sustained multiple gunshot wounds but the most grave was on her thigh, which was inflicted by one of the attackers after he heard her phone ring.

“She had called us earlier but went quiet when the attackers closed-in on her. They asked her whether the callers were her parents but she denied and claimed they were friends. They shot on her thigh to silence the phone,” Mr Kisangu narrated a tale that his daughter has told severally.

He says he heard the chilling news of the attack on Radio Maisha while at work in Kitui, and panicked when Catherine couldn’t pick his phone calls as the Interior Cabinet Secretary announced the death toll that kept rising from 17 to 74 and eventually 147.

“I had vowed to drive to Garissa the following day to look for her but luckily, Catherine asked a clinical officer to call my wife and inform us that she was injured but was receiving treatment in Garissa, and would be transferred to Nairobi the following day,” Kisangu told The Standard on Saturday.

When the trio met the following day at the KNH emergency ward, it was a happy reunion and now the family focuses on healing the physical wounds as they work on the emotional ones.

Catherine is reserved and lets her parents share the experience but she affirms that on recovery, she will pursue her dream to become a teacher.