 Most of the university's campuses became fully fledged universities in the early 2010s.The Garissa University College attack of 2015 occurred at the university's Garissa campus.In this incident, 5 gunmen claiming association with Al-Shabaab took over 700 students hostage, freeing those identified as Muslim, and killing 142 identified as Christians, with over 79 others injured in the attack plus 6 military and police fatalities.