One Of Kenyan Attackers Is Son Of Top Official

One of the most populated country in east Africa, Kenya was thrown into mourning, a three days of bereavement was carried out for one hundred and forty eight people killed in the university massacre as one of the four gunmen is identified.

The Islamist militants, who were strapped with explosives, stormed the campus and singled out non-Muslim students to be murdered.

The interior ministry said one of the extremists was Abdirahim Abdullahi, the son of a Kenyan government official.

"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," spokesman Mwenda Njoka said.

Abdullahi graduated from the University of Nairobi with a law degree in 2013 and was seen as a "brilliant upcoming lawyer," added the spokesman.

Students who survived the attack by militant group al Shabaab have been reunited with their families.

One survivor, Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, told how she hid from gunmen by covering herself with clothes in a wardrobe.

She was found by security forces two days after the attack at Garissa University College, as medical staff carried out the grim task of dealing with victims' bodies.

Another 19-year-old student, Daniel Machache, smeared blood over his body and pretended he was dead to survive the slaughter.

Survivors were taken on government buses to the Nyayo National Stadium, which has been turned into a disaster centre.

Many relatives at the stadium desperately tried to trace their loved ones and find out if they were dead, injured or simply missing.

Thursday's attack, in the north-eastern town of Garissa, close to the Somalia border, left 142 students, three police officers and three soldiers dead.

The government has defended its response to the one-day siege as it emerged Kenyan special forces were not deployed to the university for at least seven hours.

"This is negligence on a scale that borders on the criminal," Kenya's popular Nation newspaper wrote in its editorial on Sunday.

It emphasised how survivors said "the gunmen, who killed scores of students with obvious relish, took their time".

Some journalists based in Nairobi drove 225 miles to Garissa and arrived before special force who flew there.

Kenyans dedicated Easter Sunday prayer services to the victims, marking the first of three days of national mourning.

Pope Francis has called for peace in conflict-hit countries across the world, sending his prayers in particular to those killed in the university massacre.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said the militants would face justice for the "mindless slaughter" and vowed to retaliate in the "severest way".