This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
On July 2, 2015, a terror attack on Garissa University College left 148 students dead and many more injured. Almost four years later, a Nairobi court has finally brought justice to the victims' families by sentencing three individuals found guilty of the heinous crime.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi handed down the sentences on Wednesday, with the fifth accused person, Rashid Charles Mberesero, receiving a life imprisonment sentence for committing a terrorism act. The court found that Mberesero had indicated his intention to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia and was found at the scene of the crime.
The first and second accused, Mohammed Abdi Abdikar and Hassan Edin Hassan, were sentenced to 41 years in jail. The court considered them first offenders, as they did not have any prior cases in court. The two were found guilty of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act, and being members of Al-Shabaab.
Prosecuting counsel Duncan Ondimu had urged the court to consider the severity of the crime, stating that the students who died suffered a gruesome death and that the attackers' actions were premeditated. He also pointed out that 148 human beings died in the attack, which was not a small number.
Lawyer Mbugua Mureithi, representing Abdikadir and Hassan, asked the court for leniency, arguing that the two were remorseful over the conviction and that they were first-degree offenders. He also argued that the 60 years asked for by the prosecution was too harsh and was akin to a death sentence.
