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.
Kenyan Christians killed for refusing to recite Islamic Shahada
Three Kenyan Christians were hacked to death by Al-Shabaab militants on Friday night (18 August) after they refused to recite the Islamic prayer of faith. A fourth Christian – the mentally challenged older brother of one of the three – was also killed. At around 9pm, Changawa Muthemba, who was […]
Coastal and north-east Kenyans have more to fear than most, as Al-Shabaab threatens elections
Attacks by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in the Kenyan coastal region of Lamu are raising concerns that the Islamist group is attempting to disrupt the election tomorrow (8 August), as international observers warn of chaos if the result is perceived as rigged. The election, between current President Uhuru Kenyatta and his […]
First husband brutally killed a week after wedding; five years on, Kenyan re-marries
Five years after the brutal death of her first husband, Kenyan Damaris Kioko remarried in Mombasa today (29 July). Jackson Kioko was killed in May 2012 in the Jomvu area of Mombasa, only a week after their wedding in coastal Kenya. “We had a very colourful wedding. People said that […]
Beheaded Kenyans belonged to local church
A number of the nine Kenyan men beheaded by Islamist militants Al-Shabaab on Friday night (11 July) belonged to a local church, local sources told World Watch Monitor. One witness, Johnson Kitsao, told the Washington Post earlier the attackers were “specifically looking for non-Muslim men”. The attack took place late […]
Al-Shabaab sex-slave programme to ‘breed next generation of fighters’
A Kenyan woman searching for her two brothers, suspected of joining the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants Al-Shabaab, has discovered that women are being seized and trafficked by the group as sex slaves. Her findings are revealed in the BBC report, The sex slaves of al-Shabab. During her search, Salama Ali uncovered stories […]
12 killed in attack ‘by Al-Shabaab gunmen targeting Kenyan Christians’
Six people were killed during this Al-Shabaab attack on the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in July. Twelve people have been killed in an attack in north-east Kenya believed to have been carried out by the Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab. Media outlets sympathetic to the group reported that the latest incident […]
Al-Shabaab claims killing of 6 Christians in northeast Kenya raid
The six people killed in this morning’s attack in north-east Kenya by Al-Shabaab were Christians, according to the militant group’s own radio station, Radio Andalus. The militia attacked at about 2:45am this morning, 6 October. It reports that the grenade and gun attack on a residential compound in Mandera, on […]
UPDATE: Four police officers charged with killing Christian lawyer in Kenya
Willie Kimani (centre), his client, Josephat Mwenda (left), and their driver, Joseph Muiruri (right).IJM UPDATE (18 July): A court in Nairobi has charged four police officers in connection with the murder of a lawyer and two of his companions. Willie Kimani, Josephat Mwenda and their driver, Joseph Muiruri, went […]
Kenyan pastor killed after running peace workshop
A pastor was among the six people killed when gunmen attacked two buses on Friday in Kenya’s north-eastern region of Mandera, near the Somalia border. Pastor John Njaramba Kiruga, was returning home from facilitating a training on pursuing peace between Christian and Muslims in Garissa and Mandera, a volatile region where […]
At least six killed in bus attack in NE Kenya
At least six people were killed as gunmen attacked two buses on Friday in Kenya’s north-eastern region of Mandera, near the Somalia border. The identity of the assailants is not yet known, but attacks carried out by Al Shabaab are frequent in that volatile region. In November 2014, a bus […]