Kenyans accuse government of taking insufficient security measures


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GARISSA, Kenya (AP) — Some Kenyans are accusing their government of not doing enough to prevent yesterday's massacre of 148 people at a college in northeastern Kenya by a group of Islamic extremists.

The attack came six days after Britain advised against "all but essential travel" to parts of Kenya, including the area where the attack took place. But one day before the attack, the country's president dismissed the warning -- as well as one in Australia -- saying, "Kenya is as safe as any country in the world." He described the warnings as "not genuine."

The head of a student group at Nairobi University says the government's behavior shows that it's not serious in fighting extremist attacks.

Survivors of the attack say the killers appeared to have done extensive planning -- even targeting a site where Christians had gone to pray.

In Nairobi today, relatives of victims went to a morgue where some bodies had been airlifted from the campus in eastern Kenya. Screaming and crying family members were assisted by Red Cross staffers.

At the scene of the attack, meanwhile, police have been taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four assailants, and of the students and security officials who died, for identification purposes.

%@AP Links

187-a-12-(William Gitonga, relative of missing student, in AP interview)-"the families members"-William Gitonga, a relative of one of the students, says there has been little communication with authorities as families search for loved ones. (3 Apr 2015)

<<CUT *187 (04/03/15)££ 00:12 "the families members"

188-r-12-(Sound of successive gun shots as students duck for cover, from video recorded during the attack)--Sound of successive gun shots as students duck for cover on the college campus. (3 Apr 2015)

<<CUT *188 (04/03/15)££ 00:12

APPHOTO AAS119: Kenya Red Cross staff help a woman after she viewed the body of a relative killed in Thursday's attack on a university, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, April 3, 2015. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing scores of people in the group's deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk. (AP Photo) (3 Apr 2015)

<<APPHOTO AAS119 (04/03/15)££

APPHOTO AAS120: A woman gestures after she viewed the body of a relative killed in Thursday's attack on a university, at Chiromo funeral home, Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, April 3, 2015. Al-Shabab gunmen rampaged through a university in northeastern Kenya at dawn Thursday, killing scores of people in the group's deadliest attack in the East African country. Four militants were slain by security forces to end the siege just after dusk. (AP Photo) (3 Apr 2015)

<<APPHOTO AAS120 (04/03/15)££

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