By Amoto Ndiewo
The reduction of prison sentences gifted to two convicts of Garissa university terror attack by a Nairobi court has hugely angered Garissa residents.
The High Court Judge, Justice Cecilia Githua, reduced the sentences of Hassan Edin Hassan and Mohamed Abdi Abikar from 41.5 to a 25.5 years after they appealed their 2019 cases.
Reacting to the same, Garissa based security analyst Caleb Alembi says the ruling blows scorn in the fight against terrorism and terrorists.
“The more than 20 year reduction makes terrorism an attractive venture in the country. You know terrorists are international rational thinkers who do a cost benefit analysis of their actions, but here since the punishment appears less than the cost , then it a positive plus to them,’’ lamented Alembi.
Alembi further fears that since the two intentionally targeted and killed young upcoming university students it was ideal for the justice system to gift them death sentence.
“Though it could leave both seem to be an eye for an eye is a fair game,” said Abdi Kontama in Ngamia Road Garissa. Similar sentiments are shared by Bishar Abdullahi who says that the remission of the sentence could further lead to an acquittal.
In 2019, a lower court sentenced the duo to 25 and a half year for conspiracy to commission and commit a terrorist act and 15 and half years for being members of al shabaab.
On 25th March 2023 while overturning the sentence of al shabaab membership, the high court judge said the prosecution did not present evidence proving the two terror convicts belonged to the feared terror group.
Alembi thinks the ruling disregards the feeling of the families of 148 souls lost brutally in the Garissa University on that fateful morning of endless mourning on April 2, 2015.
In 2015, four gunmen stormed Garissa University and randomly shot 148 students, killing them on the spot. The militants were targeting non local students.
Immediately the Somali based al shabaab said it was motivated to carry out the attack against Kenya for shipping armed troops to Kismayu port city.
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