Kenyan university attacker identified as official's son

Kenya's interior ministry has identified one of the al-Shabab gunmen who massacred students at a northeastern university as the son of a Kenyan government official.

Mwenda Njoka, an interior ministry spokesman, said Abdirahim Abdullahi was among four gunmen who attacked the Garissa University College campus on Thursday, killing 148 people.

"The father had reported to security agents that his son had disappeared from home ... and was helping the police try to trace his son by the time the Garissa terror attack happened," Njoka told the Reuters news agency in a text message.
The Kenya Today website identified Abdullahi as the son of Abdullahi Daqara, the Chief of Bulla Jamhuri in Mandera county. It described Abdullahi as a former gifted law graduate who had studied at the University of Nairobi.
As Kenya began three days of national mourning and dedicated Easter prayer services to the victims of the attack, reports emerged that Kenyan special forces were not deployed to the site of the attack, near the border with Somalia, for at least seven hours.