Al Shabaab have struck again in Kenya. The attack, at 5.00 am on the small campus of Garissa University, near Kenya's north-eastern border with southern Somalia, once again exposes the difficulties confronting Kenya's security forces.

Al Shabaab tends to mount attacks in clusters, so this was not entirely unexpected: last Friday a major assault was mounted on an international hotel in Mogadishu, and over the weekend a Uganda judicial prosecutor, who was due to hear the case against Al Shabaab activists accused of bar bombings in Kampala, was assassinated in a drive-by shooting.

Kenya's problems with Al Shabaab are far from over, and it is likely that the government of Uhuru Kenyatta will again be criticised for the failings of its security operations, even if they manage to bring the current siege at Garissa to a speedy conclusion.

MH 2nd April 2015

Further Information:

Melissa Holloway, Assistant Press Officer, Email: Melissa.Holloway@warwick.ac.uk