A survivor of an attack by Islamist gunmen on a university campus in Garissa, northern Kenya, is comforted by a colleague after arriving in Nairobi
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 8 (UPI) -- Five suspects linked to the Garissa University College attack were arraigned in court, as thousands of Kenyans took to the streets to protest the assault.
The prosecution was granted a 30-day detention extension for the suspects by a Nairobi court to gather evidence on whether the suspects supplied weapons to the militants. A sixth suspect, who is Tanzanian, was being held in the northeastern town of Garissa, where the attack took place about 90 miles from the Somali border.
Masked gunmen, belonging to the Somali militant group al-Shabab, stormed Garissa University College on April 2, and engaged police and military forces in a daylong siege. At least 148 people were killed.
Al-Shabab declared a "long, gruesome war" against Kenya after Kenya deployed troops to Somalia to fight al-Shabab in 2011.
About 2,500 people marched in the town of Garissa on Tuesday to protest and show defiance against al-Shabab. Student protests were held in the capital of Nairobi ahead of a candle-lit vigil. Three days of national mourning ended Tuesday night.
"You remain in our hearts!" read some signs held by protesters, who some declared were no longer "at the mercy of al-Shabab."
After attacking the university, the al-Shabab gunmen lined up non-Muslim students and executed them.
"I don't [know] what wrong did they do [to] have departed and what did I do to deserve to still be here," Maryam Njeri, a survivor, told Al Jazeera. "I just feel like crying."