Most Kenyans are Christian, but violence against Christians has increased in recent years – predominantly at the hands of Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, which continues to target Christians in regions near the border with Somalia, where the group is based. Militants cross into Kenya to raid towns or attack buses, where they separate Christians from Muslims, and execute the Christians. In April 2015, Al-Shabaab slaughtered 147 students at Garissa University, and Christians were singled out and killed.
Mass exodus of teachers triggers education crisis in north east Kenya
Recent killings of non-local teachers in north-eastern Kenya by suspected al-Shabaab militants have triggered a further mass exodus from the predominantly Muslim region, after at least one previous exodus in March 2018. According to Kenya Ministry of Education figures, 32 teachers have been killed in militants’ attacks in the region […]
Al-Shabaab singles out 11 to kill in bus attack in northern Kenya; raises fear for Christians
Eleven people, almost all known to be Christians, were killed during an attack by the Islamist Al-Shabaab group on a bus in Kenya’s border region with Somalia on 6 December. The militants forced the bus, owned by Medina Bus Company (which transports people and goods between Kenya’s capital Nairobi and north-east […]
“I was last to come out alive”- Kenyan student on her life-changing injuries from Garissa
Four years ago, on the eve of Good Friday – the day on which Christians remember Jesus Christ’s crucifixion – 143 Kenyan university students were killed, singled out by Al-Shabaab gunmen for their Christian faith. Four more died after armed forces arrived, making it the deadliest terrorist incident in Kenya […]
Kenya: Two Christian teachers killed by suspected Al-Shabaab attackers
Two Christian school teachers were killed in an attack by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya’s Mandera County, near the Somali border, last week. Philip Okumu, 26, and Daniel Wekesa 39, died on Wednesday (10 October) after assailants raided the house for non-local teachers in Arabia Boys Secondary School, about one […]
Kenyan worship leader one of two killed for failing to say Islamic prayer of faith
Two people were killed for failing to recite the Islamic statement of faith when militants, believed to belong to the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab, attacked their bus in eastern Kenya on Friday, 14 September. Seven men stopped the bus while it was on its way to Garissa, between the towns of Iljara and […]
Kenya: four ‘non-Muslims’ killed on Somalia border
Four Kenyans – said to be “non-Muslims” – were killed last week (4 May) in an attack on a quarry in the northern town of Mandera. The authorities suspect the assailants were members of Islamist group Al-Shabaab. Mandera borders Somalia, where Al-Shabaab is based, and was the site of the […]
Kenya: engaged couple killed, together with fellow primary school teacher, by suspected Al-Shabaab attackers
After the coldblooded murder of three Christian teachers – including a couple soon to be married – in north-eastern Kenya by suspected Al-Shabaab gunmen, fear is growing that the Islamist militant group is targeting education, and its proponents, in the predominantly Muslim region. Seth Oluoch Odada and Kevin Shari were […]
Film showing Muslims protecting Christians nominated for Oscar
A short film about a bus attack during which Muslims protected Christians, while travelling from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to Mandera in the north-east, has been nominated for an Oscar, the BBC reports. The film, ‘Watu Wote’ (All of us), is one of the five nominees for an award in […]
Kenya coastal region on alert for Christmas attacks by Al-Shabaab
Police in Kwale in the coastal region of Kenya have found a haul of weapons from the gunmen suspected of an attack in September on a local church. The find coincided with government warnings that Al-Shabaab militants might be planning attacks in the area during the Christmas season. Weapons and […]
Three Kenyan Christians ‘called out by name’, then beheaded by suspected Al-Shabaab
A group of around 30 heavily armed men in military gear, suspected to be Al-Shabaab militants, killed three men in Lamu West, near Hindi, at about 1.30am on Wednesday (6 September). In eastern coastal Kenya, along the Somali border, Lamu has been beset by Islamist attacks for years. This has […]