Kenyans hold march for national security after massacre
Kenyans prepared to march for greater national security Tuesday following last week's massacre by Somalia's Shebab Islamists, ahead of a candlelit vigil on the final day of mourning for the 148 people killed by the militants, AFP reported.
Kenyan fighter jets pounded camps belonging to the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in southern Somalia on Monday, but anger has been growing over allegations that critical intelligence warnings were missed.
Special forces units took seven hours to reach the university in Garissa last Thursday, some 365 kilometres (225 miles) from the capital, as Shebab gunmen stormed dormitory buildings before lining up non-Muslim students for execution in what President Uhuru Kenyatta described as a "barbaric medieval slaughter."
The massacre, Kenya's deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, claimed the lives of 142 students, three police officers and three soldiers.
Tuesday's demonstration was due to begin at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) in Nairobi as security forces continued their hunt for those behind the university killings, with the vigil planned for later in the afternoon on the third and final day of national mourning.
The army said Monday's airstrikes destroyed two Islamist bases, and followed a promise by Kenyatta that he would retaliate "in the severest way possible" against the Shebab militants for their attack last Thursday.
"We bombed two Shebab camps in the Gedo region," Kenyan army spokesman David Obonyo told AFP, without giving details about any possible casualties in the lawless Somali area bordering Kenya.