Garissa University restarts teaching after attack (Kenya)

 Classes have resumed at the Kenyan university where 148 students died in a gun attack last April but only a few students have turned up for its reopening.

Security has been tightened at Garissa University College nine months after the attack by militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

But it appears that many potential students have stayed away.

Last year's attack was the deadliest so far by the Somali-based group in Kenya.

Staff reported to work last week to get the campus in north-east Kenya ready.

It has been closed since the attack and at the time some 650 students were offered places at a sister campus in Eldoret, western Kenya, to continue their studies.

They were not expected to return to Garissa but the authorities are hoping to attract a new cohort of students.

Only about a dozen students arrived and attended a business management class.

The BBC's Angela Ngendo in Garissa says that those who turned up were third-year students who worked in the local area.

They told her they wanted to complete the classes so they could graduate.

The university authorities say that they expect more students to come for the beginning of the academic year in September.

Al-Shabab says it is opposed to the presence of Kenyan troops in neighbouring Somalia.