She was loved by everybody in the family


Milton Nkosi reports for the BBC on heartbreak in Nairobi as parents collect the bodies of their children murdered in the Garissa slaughter.

I watched mothers, fathers, other relatives and friends break down in tears at Chiromo mortuary in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, as coffins of their young sons and daughters were handed over.

There could not have been a more poignant moment to witness the deep pain and grief suffered by families of those who perished in the Garissa University College attack last week.

They are taking their children home to the hills and valleys of this beautiful land for burial.

No more college. No more future.

Back at the mortuary I heard about 23-year-old Susan Kwamboka Onyikwa.

She was studying to become a teacher and her uncle Ngunyi Yusuf, a former banker, had come to fetch her body.

“Susan was marvellous. She loved cooking and being at home. She was loved by everybody in the family,” he told me.

With tears swelling in his eyes, the 42-year-old continued calmly: “She was a very good lady. We are devastated.”

She would have been a teacher. Now she won’t. Now her family is devastated.

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