Survivor of Garissa Church Attack Struggles to Cope with Life

Survivor of Garissa church attack struggles to cope with life as a trader two years after losing her foot during an Al Shabaab assault

By Philip Muasya

Gladys Katute is yet to learn how to use her artificial foot which she acquired after half her right foot was blown off by a grenade. The attack, which left Katute disabled, was at the African Inland Church in Garissa town on July 1, 2012. Katute, whose life has been turned upside down by the events, remembers the black Sunday with great sadness.

She and her husband Benson Munyambu were in the church, among tens of other worshippers when they heard some noise from the roof. They thought it came from cheeky boys pelting the roof with pebbles, as they were sometimes wont to do. Unknown to them, the church had been attacked by a blood-thirsty gang.

When the crackle of something like gunfire persisted, her husband and other worshippers walked out of the church to check what was going on. The group began to scream, scrambling back inside the church for dear life. Outside, they had ran into a bloody body of an Administration Police officer who had been slain by the attackers. Then they saw four hooded men menacingly wielding guns and grenades. The other terrified policeman also scampered for safety inside the church. Katute recalls that it was during the praise and worship session at around 10.30am when the four masked men stormed in.

“I saw them take positions in all the four doors of the church. We could only see their eyes. Then one of them aimed at the police officer and shot him in the head as he knelt down, pleading for his life,” says Katute.

The rein of terror then started as the terrorists pumped bullets indiscriminately at the worshippers. The pandemonium saw 17 people mowed down by bullets and dozens injured by grenades into the church. One of the grenades fell at her feet. Luckily, it did not fully detonate. “I felt a fiery sensation cut through my foot and I saw the leg on fire. I screamed as I lay on my stomach,” she says, flinching at the recollection.

She thinks she survived because she had heeded the advice given to them by a police officer who told them that in case of a gun attack, they should not run but lie on the ground. The injured were then taken to Garissa Provincial Hospital where Katute spent four months.
She remembers one time waking up in her hospital bed and seeing Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, then Prime Minister and Vice President by her bedside.

The two had visited the victims and promised that the Government would stand with them until they had fully recovered. This pledged was not fulfilled. To date Katute, who ran a thriving tailoring business alongside a vegetable kiosk in Garissa, has been though nine major surgical operations in Garissa and Kijabe mission hospitals to remove grenade fragments on the stump of her foot.

The X-ray images indicate that the stump has sand-like granules that her doctors advise need to be extracted meticulously. Her businesses went bust after the attack. “The treatment has taken a toll on our lives. I have spent close to Sh2 million and I need to undergo several more operations. We have sold everything for my treatment,” Katute, whose husband is a mason, says.

The prosthetic she wears cost her Sh20,000 but she needs another one. Because their money has run out, the young couple has withdrawn their four children from the Church on the Rock Academy in Garissa and transferred them to public schools in their rural home.

Katute now runs a kiosk at Musuani trading centre since she cannot operate sewing machines.

“We were attacked in a church when we had not wronged anyone yet the Government left us on our own. It should establish a kitty to help victims,” she says, in her appeal to well-wishers for help.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000133284/survivor-of-garissa-church-attack-struggles-to-cope-with-life-as-a-trader-two-years-after-losing-her-foot