Kenyan students remembered as suspects appear in court

Vigils for 148 killed by al-Shabab gunmen in Garissa attack, as government lists entities “aiding armed group”.

Five suspects accused of supplying weapons to the al-Shabab gunmen who killed 148 people at a university campus in Garissa have appeared in court as Kenyans continued to mourn those killed at memorial services and marches.

The suspects were arraigned in a Nairobi court on Tuesday, with the prosecutor granted an additional 30 days to investigate their actions.

Three days of mourning officially came to an end on Tuesday night, when hundreds of people attended a vigil in Nairobi’s Freedom Park, where an interim shrine of crosses and candles had been set up.

Inside the compound where Garissa massacre took place

Among those in attendance at the vigil were survivors from last Thursday’s massacre, when gunmen from the al-Qaeda-aligned group killed 148 people after storming the Garissa University College campus in Kenya’s northeast.

After besieging the university, the al-Shabab gunmen lined up non-Muslim students before executing them in the armed group’s bloodiest attack to date.

“I just feel like crying. I don’t [know] what wrong did they do [to] have departed and what did I do to deserve to still be here. I just feel like crying,” survivor Maryam Njeri told Al Jazeera.

‘Al-Shabab linked entities’

On Tuesday night, the Kenyan government published a list of groups it considered “terrorist” organisations and a list of entities it suspects of being associated with al-Shabab. The entities have had their bank accounts frozen.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Nairobi, said the list of 86 entities includes businessmen, money-transfer companies, bus companies that operate between Nairobi and the country’s northeast, Muslim clerics and a Muslim human rights organisation. 


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“This hits at the heart of the Somali business community, because almost 95 percent of the people on the list  … are of ethnic Somali origin,” our correspondent reported, adding that it was not yet known whether the government has had the list for a long time, or if it was newly created.

Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of Kenyan students marched in downtown Nairobi to honour those killed and to press the government for better security in the wake of the killings.

Inside Story: Garissa attack – could it have been prevented?

The crowd walked and jogged down main thoroughfares in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday, sometimes sitting in traffic circles and intersections.

One demonstrator held a sign that read “You remain in our hearts!” Another said “Comrades are tired of al-Shabab”.

Demonstrators demand security

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Nairobi, said the demonstrators were angry with the government for failing to provide adequate security in Garissa.

“People in Garissa had said they wanted more security because they were in an unstable part of the country where al-Shabab had launched several attacks in the last year or so,” he said.

On Twitter, Kenyans and other users have been using the hashtag ‘  #147notjustanumber ‘, to remember those who had died in the attack, referring to an earlier death toll. 

The hashtag had picked up more than 68,000 mentions as of Tuesday night, according to social media analytics site, Topsy.

Source: Al Jazeera