Kenya On Alert

"We targeted the two areas because according to information we have, those [al Shabab] fellows are coming from there to attack Kenya."
Kenyan Defence Forces spokesman

"We were expecting tourists from U.K., Germany, France, Australia and Asia continent, but they canceled their bookings when they learned of the terror attack."
Peter Kipeno, Maasai Mara game park, Kenya

"Something has to change. Kenya must change from its Hakuna Matata posture [hakuna matata, a common Swahili expression meaning: 'no problem'] and realize that a war is afoot against a merciless enemy."
Sunday Nation editorial, Kenya

The first thing that should change is that the Kenyan security forces must be imbued with a sense of urgency, of a responsibility to surface where the danger is highest, and for them and the government itself to take seriously the information it receives from other countries warning of impending danger. Those outside warnings would not seem to be necessary the least bit, in light of previous al-Shabab attacks within Kenya. Yet it appears to have taken security forces eight hours to arrive at Garissa University's violent outrage mounted by al-Shabab.

As though to compensate, the Kenyan air force has bombed two al-Shabab camps in Somalia with jets pounding the camps in Gondodoe and Ismail in the region bordering Kenya. Without knowing how effective their campaign to bomb the camps were because of a low cloud cover that also didn't permit them to discover their bombs may have gone where they weren't intended to, killing civilians instead of members of al-Shabab.

Who would, in any event, have taken measures to evacuate the camps knowing full well that there would be a reaction to their storming of the Garissa University College campus, killing 248 mostly Christian students.

Intelligence reports point to wanted terrorist Mohamed Mohamud, accused of masterminding the Garissa attack: "The bounty on him has been revised to 20 million Kenyan shillings because he is believed to be the mastermind of this attack", explained a security source of a man already wanted for attacks in northern Kenya last year who had once taught at a Wahhabi-based madrassa.

What upsets the government possibly more than the loss of the students is the declining effect on its economy heavily dependent on tourism. Tourists and investors will now view Kenya as being too risky for them to gamble with their lives or their investment dollars. Hoteliers from its Indian Ocean coastal region and game park preserves note that tourists have begun cancelling their reservations after the latest atrocity.

"[The security services] waited too long and the terrorists had so much time to kill our kids", Isaac Mutisya said, mourning his 23-year-old daughter Risper Mutindi Kasyoka.