Kenyans step up vigilance after university attack

As they walk the streets, enter malls for shopping, churches to pray, take their children to school or board public service vehicles, Kenyans are looking over their shoulders to check if the enemy is plotting attacks against them.

Kenyan residents have become cautious as they step up vigilance since last week's attack at Garissa University College in which 148 people were killed, 142 of them who were students.

It has become apparent to Kenyans that the terrorist (Al- Shabaab) is no longer a ruffian whose intentions are well-written on his face that one can easily pick out.

That smartly dressed man carrying a brief case; the gorgeous woman wearing expensive cologne strutting the street or the neighbor living a lavish lifestyle are the new faces of Al-Shabaab, the Somali-based militants.

This is clear after it emerged that the terror group recruited and used a law graduate educated at Kenya's top institution of higher learning, the University of Nairobi, to massacre the students in Garissa.

"He used to live an expensive lifestyle, way above the rest of us students. Many believed that he got the money from a business he operated in Eastleigh, but now the truth has come out," a student said of Abdirahim Mohamed Abdullahi, the law graduate who turned ruthless terrorist.

In Nairobi, Kenyans have learned that they should treat anyone with suspicion.

"What are you carrying in that luggage? Please open it," a matatu (public service minibus) conductor asked a young man who had a small bag that he had placed under a sit on Monday.

When the man declined to reveal what he was carrying or open the bag, passengers in the matatu heading to Githurai, a city suburb, threw their weight behind the conductor.

"These are trying times, open your bag or you alight from the vehicle," shouted a man in the vehicle. When the passenger saw the heat was too much, he opened the bag that contained his personal effects.

Matatu operators in the East African nation's capital have dusted metal detectors they had abandoned some months back and they are now frisking every passenger entering their vehicles.

"The Garissa terror attack shows that we are far from defeating terrorists. Most of us matatu operators had stopped using the metal detectors, but it is now apparent that we cannot take security for granted. Small acts like frisking passengers can save lives," said Fred, a matatu conductor along the Embakasi route.

At malls, churches, schools and other public places, security has been beefed up, with some establishments considered as high- risk being manned by police officers.

Police presence on the streets of the Nairobi, which is top target for terrorists, has been increased as Kenya does all in its might to stop the killing of its citizens.

The National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) has asked Kenyans to help detect, deter and disrupt terrorist activities in the East African country.

"Look for suspicious people who are either in unauthorized areas, appear lost, overdressed for a given weather condition, loiter or are observing activities on facilities without authority or just wandering around strategic places," the centre's director- general Isaac Ochieng said.

Suspicious people, according to NCTC, avoid eye contact, are nervous, appear to be in a hurry, take videos, draw diagrams or maps of places and they can be disguised as selling merchandise to gain access to places.

Kenyans have also been advised to watch out for unattended boxes, packages and bags in places like washrooms, lecture halls, matatus and dining halls in colleges.

President Uhuru Kenyatta noted on Sunday that it has become more difficult to fight terrorism because the planners, financiers and attackers are deeply embedded in Kenyan society.

"Radicalization does not take place in the bush, it occurs in full glare of the day, in homes, madrassas, and mosques with rogue imams," he said. Endi