Kenya launches probe over Garissa militant attack

Kenyan authorities on Tuesday appointed a team that will work prosecutors to carry out investigations into Garissa terror attack where 148 people were killed and over 70 others injured in early April.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaiserry also interdicted seven top police chiefs and two administrative officers in Garissa County to allow investigations to be completed.

"The Inspector General of Police has appointed an investigating team that will work with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to carry out investigations and take necessary steps as soon as possible," Nkaiserry told journalists in Nairobi.

"I am convinced of the need for through investigations into the terrorist attack on the Garissa University College to establish possible criminal culpability of individual officers or relevant security committees," he added.

Nkaissery said he took the drastic action after perusing through a preliminary enquiry which was undertaken by a government- led team on the conduct of individual police commanders and administrative officers as well as the performance of the respecting security committees in charge of security in northeast region.

The move came after Kenyans had expressed their anger over the conduct of police officers during the ten-hour siege and blamed high death toll on security officers whom they accuse of slow response during the attack.

A senior police chief has also admitted that a plane meant to transport an elite squad to the scene was instead being used to fly his family back from holiday on the coast.

The plane's crew had been sent to Mombasa on the morning of the attack to pick up police official Rogers Mbithi's daughter-in-law and her child instead of airlifting an elite squad to the scene of the attack.

The plane eventually arrived and transported the officers to the site of the attack hours after the siege began.

The elite squad later discovered some of the casualties alive while others had been murdered in the afternoon and finally broke the siege.

The elite officers arrived even after some senior government officials and humanitarian agencies based in Nairobi, but were able to gun down the four terrorists carrying out the slaughter 10 hours after the attack began.

Some Kenyans including human rights groups have blamed corruption among the security forces for allowing Al-Shabaab to carry out such attacks.

Sources said the County Intelligence and Security Committee (CISC) had received information that the college was among the areas that the Al-Shabaab were planning to attack.

The CISC had recommended that eight police officers be deployed to the areas named as terrorist targets but this did not happen due to the shortage of police officers. The team reduced the number to four.

It has since emerged the county security team had been warned in time and they even visited the college two days earlier as part of efforts to ensure security.

On the day of the attack, there was supposed to be four armed police officers on duty but only two were present.

One of the officers told the investigating team he escaped the scene after the first attack while the second one said he engaged the attackers and left after he ran out of the 20 bullets he had he ran for his safety.

It has since emerged the attackers planned to lay a siege for almost a week. This emerged after the investigators found out that the attackers had bought dates, biscuits, water, juice and other foodstuffs that they were to use for the period.