Kenya university attack: Government official's missing son 1 of 4 gunmen

One of the gunmen who slaughtered 148 people at a Kenyan university was identified Sunday as the law-school-educated son of a Kenyan government official, highlighting the inroads Islamic extremists have made in recruiting young people to carry out violent attacks in the country.
Abdirahim Mohammed Abdullahi, one of the Islamic extremists who attacked Garissa University College, was the son of a government chief in Mandera County, which borders Somalia, Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka told The Associated Press.
The chief had reported his son missing last year and said he feared that he had gone to Somalia, said Njoka. All four attackers were killed by Kenyan security forces on Thursday, said police.
Abdullahi graduated from the University of Nairobi with a law degree in 2013 and was viewed as a "brilliant upcoming lawyer," according to Njoka. It is not clear where he worked before he disappeared last year, Njoka said.
To prevent an escalation of Islamic radicalization in Kenya, it is important for parents to inform authorities if their children go missing or show tendencies of following violent extremism, said Njoka.

The four gunmen entered the Garissa campus on Thursday and slaughtered students. It took more than 12 hours to stop the attack by killing the gunmen. Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamic militants claimed responsibility for the attack saying it was retribution for Kenya deploying troops to Somalia to fight the extremist rebels.