Mr Emmanuel Mramba, 21, (centre), a survivor of the attack with his
parents after arriving home in Jilore village, Kilifi County, on April
6, 2015. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Survivors of the terrorist attack at Garissa University College
arrived home on Monday to emotional reunions with family members who
have been on tenterhooks ever since the attack took place.
For
Emmanuel Mramba, 21, who survived Thursday’s attack which claimed the
lives of 142 students, the four-day wait before he got home seemed like
eternity for his family in Jilore village, Kilifi County.
The same applied to Ms Faith Kaungu from Chengoni, Rabai, Kilifi County.
Faith
was a second year Bachelor of Arts in Economics student while Emmanuel,
also in second, was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.
Emmanuel who had been composed throughout the journey from Mtwapa, where the Nation crew connected with him, broke down at the sight of his parents and siblings.
He
flew into the arms of his mother Elizabeth Karabu as other family
members looked on. They also got their turn to hug him as tears flowed
freely.
His father, Mr Geoffrey Kenga, a retired Kenya
Navy warrant officer broke the silence: “I thank God, I have seen my
son. I thought he would arrive home dead or badly hurt,” he said.
Emmanuel
then narrated his ordeal: “I remember it was 5:45am. My roommates heard
gunshots and started running out. I jumped from my bed dressed only in
boxer shorts and towel.”
He could hear the invaders
order his colleagues in Kiswahili to repeat a sentence about President
Uhuru Kenyatta withdrawing KDF from Somalia.
He escaped
to an incomplete building by climbing a small Neem tree to reach the
iron-sheet fence. He scaled the fence and was rescued by a kind Somali
family that gave him clothes and later took him to Garissa Provincial
General Hospital.
Faith arrived home early Sunday morning and was received by her father Mr Evans Nzai and other family members.
When the Nation
team arrived at the home, the family and neighbours were praying. They
also brought in all manner of gifts including chicken and goats to
welcome her back.
Faith recalls that on that fateful morning, most of her friends had attended a morning Christian service in the lecture hall.
There
was a blackout and all of a sudden, gunshots rung out from different
directions. She remembered somebody loudly commanding the students in
Kiswahili to chant and recite Quran verses and demanding that President
Kenyatta pull out KDF from Somalia.
“We ran into the
room with my friend Maureen Onjuma and hid in a wardrobe. We were there
from around 5.30am to 7pm when we were rescued by a KDF officer.
“All that time, it was hell. We could hear our colleagues being shot and were lucky nobody came to open the wardrobe.”
'SMELL OF BLOOD'
In
Eldoret, Benard Cheruiyot, 22, a second year Bachelor of Education
student, too, recalled how he hid in a wardrobe from 5.30am to 6pm as
gunshots rent the air around their hostel.
“I could
hear them shooting indiscriminately and ordering those who had taken
refuge under beds to come out. The smell of blood filled the room,” said
Cheruiyot in the company of his mother Everline Kirwa and uncle, Mr
Timothy Tanui.
Celestine Jerotich, also 22, from Cheptil survived the onslaught after she hid in a latrine with her friend.
“We
could hear the terrorists ordering our classmates to get out of their
hideouts promising that those who would cooperate would be spared.
However, immediately they got out they were shot. They killed men first
before turning their guns on the helpless girls,” said the soft-spoken
Celestine accompanied by her father Philip Sawe and Brother Alphonce
Korir.
Ms Elizabeth Tsuma welcomes her niece Faith
Kaungu In Kilifi, after she survived the massacre at Garissa University
College. Ms Tsuma and other relatives gave Ms Kaungu gifts of chicken
and a goat. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Kisii County, tears greeted the arrival of the students.
Parents,
friends and close relatives who had camped outside the Governor’s
office could not hide their joy as the NYS bus, which had transported
them from Nairobi, arrived in Kisii town.
Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi and Chief Officer Administration Patrick Lumumba received the students.
Geoffrey
Ongeri, a second year student narrated how he and his friends managed
to run out of the hostel after being woken up by gunshots.
Their
chance came when a terrorist stopped shooting to load his gun. “I
seized the chance together with other students and raced towards the
college fence. We scaled the fence then ran to a nearby police station
and alerted the police of the attack,” he recalled.
Mango
Ochwangi, another student, also recalled how their student leader Laban
Kumba wrestled with one the terrorists. “But he was overpowered and
shot dead as I watched,” he says.
Ms Cynthia Cherotich with her brother Fred
Cheruiyot at Kenyatta National Hospital, shortly after she was
discharged on April 6, 2015. She survived the massacre by hiding under a
pile of clothes in her room. PHOTO | WILLIAM OERI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
PLAYED DEAD
In Kericho, Governor Paul Chepkwony led residents in receiving the returning students at Moi Gardens in Kericho Town.
Mr Bervin Cheruiyot, a former students’ union chairman told of how he smeared blood on his face and neck and played dead.
The
22-year old, second-year Bachelor of Arts Education student said the
attackers kicked and hit him three times to ascertain he was dead.
“They were hitting me with the butt of an AK-47 rifle. I heard one of them tell another ‘huyo amekufa, achana na yeye’ (that one is gone, leave him alone).”
A
tearful Cheruiyot said: “I still do not know why I am still alive but I
believe that this is the work of God. Unlike most of my colleagues, I
was unable to run away from the terrorists as I had sustained an injury a
few weeks earlier on the handball pitch.”
Other
students from Kericho county who were rescued by the Recce squad
officers and who arrived with him in Kericho are second year Bachelor of
Business management students Beatrice Chebet, 22, Kipyegon Geoffrey,
20, and Mathew Korir, 21.
Others were second year
Bachelor of Arts Education students Denis Kirui, 19, and Clement Kiprob
and 18-year old first year bachelor of Arts Education student Moses
Cheruiyot.
In Mwingi, residents lined up the Thika-Garissa highway to welcome the 12 NYS buses ferrying the students home.
One
of their own, Juliana Mutua, 24, a first year Bachelor’s of Education
student alighted at Mwingi town to wild cheers from the crowd.
By Duncan Ageta, Magati Obebo, Timothy Kemei, Benedict Mutuku, Henry Nyarora, Wycliff Kipsang, Stanley Kimuge and Bozo Jenje.
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