USIU-Africa students, faculty and staff held a memorial to commemorate the 147 victims of the terrorist attack on Garissa University College.
The event was attended by the Vice Chancellor Professor Freida Brown, other university officials, and students in hundreds were in attendance to mark the memorial by lighting candles and saying prayers for the victims and their families.
The memorial service was organized by the USIU counseling center, the USIU Student Affairs Council, in conjunction with Mr. and Miss USIU_A. This memorial expressed the institution’s solidarity with the victims, their families, the nation and learning institutions that have been horrified in the wake of the terror attack at Garissa University College.
Vice Chancellor Prof. Freida Brown took time on behalf of USIU-A to pass the university’s deep condolences to the victims of the Garissa attack, and also expressed her sorrow for the nation having lost young people who were future builders of the country.
“The USIU-Africa community mourns the loss of the 142 students and others at Garissa University College. To the families and friends who have lost their loved ones, you have our sincere condolences and prayers for strength to endure this loss,” Prof. Freida Brown said. “We also condemn the heinous attack on innocent young Kenyans in pursuit of an education and a productive future,” she continued.
Speaking with one of the organizers of the memorial service, Mr. USIU-A 2014 Peter Taylor emphasized that the University needed to show the affected university and other universities around the country that this is a time to come together and that it was important for the families of the victims to know that people were there for their deceased children in thoughts and prayers.
“I feel this was a good gesture from the university, and a good way to calm everyone’s nerves and show the other universities that right now is the time to be together,” Peter Taylor said. “As learning institutions, we should not panic nor be afraid or stop functioning, we should come together, pay memorial, and be strong,” he concluded.
