Garissa University: The ivory tower stands high, to the chagrin of terrorists

The entrance to the administration block at Garissa University College where 148 students were killed by Al shabaab terrorists on April 2, 2015. [File, Standard]

On the night of 29^th March 2015, Mohamed Dulyadeen aka Gamadere gave the final briefing and blessings before dispatching four attackers to attack the only university in his home county. Born and brought up in Garissa, he had gone to Somalia five years earlier, joined Al Shabaab and moved up within the ranks to the highest decision-making level. One would have expected that he would spare his home county and divert Al Shabaab's attention from it, but alas, he directed the leadership to concentrate on his homeland. Such is the absurdity of this extremist ideology and its ideologues!

Prior to the attack in Garissa University, security forces had, through coordinated operations secured Nairobi, making it an impenetrable target of terrorists. Gamadere had proposed that the attacks be focused beyond the city and that his home county of Garissa offered prime targets. The terrorist attack on 2^nd April 2015 at Garissa University had the second highest number of lives lost (the highest being the 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi) most of them young students from all over the country.