The Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the murder of 28 Christians in Kenya last Saturday, saying the killings were payback for police raids on four mosques in Mombasa.
On the morning of 22 Nov 2014, a bus carrying 60 passengers to Nairobi was ambushed by gunmen approximately 31 miles south of the town of Mandera near Kenya’s border with Somalia.
“They asked how many times I pray in a day, asked me to recite a Qur’an verse and also greeted one in Islamic,” a survivor told the Daily Nation.
“If one failed to answer these questions, then you’d be asked to lie on a muddy patch of the road facing down.”
Christian primary school teacher Douglas Ochwodo survived the attack. He told Reuters two killers went along the line of bodies, beginning at each end moving towards the middle, shooting their prone victims in the head. Ochwodo lay in the center and covered with blood from other victims, was overlooked by the killers. Nineteen men and nine women, identified as Christians, were shot dead.
In September 2013 al-Shabab terrorists assaulted Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, killing 67 people. The Islamist terror group has claimed responsibility for other attacks that have have left 90 dead this year. including the assault on Nairobi’s upscale Westgate Mall in September 2013 in which 67 people were killed. Al-Shabaab said it was responsible for other attacks on Kenya’s coast earlier this year which killed at least 90 people.
Earlier this month Kenyan police closed four mosques in Mombasa after police raids discovered weapons and explosives caches in the buildings.Speaking to reporters after services at an Anglican Church outside of Nairobi on Sunday Deputy President William Ruto told reporters on Sunday that security force jets and helicopters had attacked a camp in Somalia linked to the perpetrators of the bus massacre, killing as many as 100 terrorists. “We shall continue to deal with all the terrorists and bandits in the same way because it is the only language they understand,” he said. “If you kill any Kenyan you will also be killed.”
In his presidential address to the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Kenya last month, the Most Rev. Eliud Wabukala stated Kenya’s Christians were under assault from militant Islam. “Although 80% of the Kenyans identify as Christians, we face serious challenges,” he said.
“In a few weeks, the self styled Islamic State or Isis seized control of much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria and is set to consolidate those gains by shocking yet calculated violence and terror. We see how the churches in northern Nigeria are facing systematic eradication by Boko Haram and here in Kenya we also have felt the painful impact of radical Islam through Al Shabaab. While we look to the armed forces and the security services to protect all citizens, we must also be spiritually equipped to meet this challenge by a strong and courageous faith and a willingness to witness to all Muslims by acts of kindness and words of truth.”
