Tag Archives: Kenya

Kenyan court says closing Dadaab refugee camp would be unconstitutional

makeshift shelters in Kenyan refugee camp

By Humphrey Malalo

NAIROBI, Feb 9 (Reuters) – A Kenyan court said on Thursday it would be unconstitutional for the government to close a sprawling refugee camp housing mostly people who have fled unrest in neighbouring Somalia.

Nairobi has vowed to shut Dadaab, once seen as the world’s largest refugee camp, because it says the complex has been used by Islamist militants from Somalia as a recruiting ground to launch a string of attacks on Kenyan soil.

But rights groups argued it would hurt Somalis fleeing violence and poverty and accused Kenya of forcibly sending people back to a war zone. The government has dismissed that allegation.

“The government’s decision specifically targeting Somali refugees is an act of group persecution, illegal, discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional,” High Court judge John Mativo said in a ruling.

At its peak, as Somalis fled conflict and famine in 2011, Dadaab’s population swelled to about 580,000, earning it a reputation at the time as the world’s largest refugee camp.

Early last year, U.N. officials said the number had fallen to 350,000, while a Kenyan official later in the year put it at 250,000.

The government originally wanted to shut down Dadaab last November, but delayed the closure after international pressure to give residents more time to find new homes.

The court’s action was welcomed by rights groups.

“The High Court sent a strong message that at least one of Kenya’s branches of government is still willing to uphold refugee rights,” said Laetitia Bader, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“After months of anxiety because of the camp closure deadline hanging over their heads, increasingly restricted asylum options and the recent US administration suspension of refugee resettlement, the court’s judgement offers Somali refugees a hope that they may still be have a choice other than returning to insecure and drought-ridden Somalia.”

The government has 30 days to appeal, Mativo said. There was no immediate comment from the interior ministry.

The government spokesman was due to hold a news conference later on Thursday to address the ruling.

Somalia’s Western-backed government is battling an Islamist insurgency as it oversees a fragile reconstruction effort after decades of conflict. Swathes of the country do not have basic services.

(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Clement Uwiringiyimana and Tom Heneghan)

Muslims Shield Christians During Terrorist Attack in Kenya

Muslim passengers helped shield non-Muslim passengers, some of them Christians, during a terrorist attack on a bus in Northern Kenya on Monday, according to multiple published reports.

Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper, reported a bus traveling from the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to Mandera was attacked at about 7 a.m. local time by gunmen believed to be tied to Al-Shabaab.

The Associated Press reported 60 passengers were on the bus when the gunmen stopped it in Papa City, and that some of the Muslim passengers helped some of the non-Muslim passengers put on Islamic apparel, such as head scarves, to help mask their identities from the terrorists.

The bus passengers might have been recalling a similar attack that took place last November.

Al-Jazeera reported that Al-Shabaab militants stopped a bus near Mandera, singled out 28 non-Muslims aboard, and killed them. The BBC also reported that Al-Shabaab militants singled out Christians when they shot and killed about 150 people at Kenya’s Garissa University in April.

The quick-thinking passengers ensured that a similar scene wouldn’t take place this time.

A local government official told Daily Nation that the militants reportedly asked the passengers to exit the bus and separate themselves into two groups: Muslims and non-Muslims. The official told the newspaper the gunmen “were trying to identify who were Christians and who were not.”

But the passengers refused to divide themselves. Mandera Governor Ali Roba told Daily Nation that the passengers insisted the gunmen “should kill them together or leave them alone.”

According to the Associated Press, the gunmen ordered everyone back on the bus after a Muslim passenger told them that the bus had a police escort that was due to arrive on the scene shortly.

Two people were killed and three were injured in the attacks, Roba wrote on his Twitter page. The governor said the militants also attacked a truck.

Al-Shabaab Threatens More Terrorist Attacks In Kenya

Authorities in Kenya have reported that Somalian Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab is sending leaflets in the country threatening to carry out more attacks like the assault on Garissa University last month.

The terrorists singled out Christian students in the assault, asking students their faith before executing the non-Muslims.

“No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities,” the terrorists said in an emailed statement days after the attack.

Security officials in Elgeyo-Marakwet County say that the messages on the leaflets focuses on the area’s four primary schools.  The local government has increased security in the area and investigators are looking into the leaflets to try and verify the source.

Kenya’s newspaper, the Daily Nation, reports that a Christian girl has been arrested on charges she was part of al-Shabaab.  She reportedly had just converted to Catholicism from Protestanism before joining al-Shabaab.  The newspaper said that threats like the leaflets have been common since the attack at Garissa.

Kenya has been attacked several times by al-Shabaab after sending troops to join the African Union force driving the terrorists out of Somalia in October 2011.

Teen Drinks Lotion For Two Days Hiding From Islamist Massacre

Surviving by drinking lotion while hiding in a closet, a Kenyan teenager is praising God for surviving the brutal attack by Islamic terrorists on a University in Garissa.

Cynthia Cheroitich, 19, spoke to reporters at a local hospital after being treated for dehydration and malnourishment.

“I was just praying to my God, saying that if it has come to my day, it has reached. But if it not yet, let God decide whatever He likes,” she said.

She said that she chose the closet after the Islamist gunmen yelled any student hiding under their beds would “come out very fast.”  She covered herself with clothes so that a quick check of the closet wouldn’t reveal her presence.

She said that when she began to feel hungry and thirsty, her only option was a bottle of body oil.

Cynthia was so terrified that she did not believe at first the Kenyan military forces were actually there to help her.  The troops had to find a teacher to explain to the girl that it was safe to leave the closet.

The Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab admitted the attack which was targeting Christian students.  Witnesses said that the terrorists would ask who the student worshiped and if they answered Christ they were shot on the spot.

Death Toll In Kenyan University Attack Rises Over 140

Kenyan officials have confirmed the death toll in the Islamic terrorist attack on Garissa University has reached 147.

Witnesses say that the terrorists appear to have had excessive planning because the first place targeted was a lecture hall where Christians would meet for early morning prayers.

“They investigated our area. They knew everything,” Helen Titus told The Associated Press at a hospital in Garissa where she was being treated for a bullet wound to the wrist.  Titus said she put her classmate’s blood and hair on her face and laid still to make the attackers believe she was dead.

The terrorists also called for studnets to come out, saying they would not kill women.  They shot men on site if they said they were not Muslim.

The terrorists confirmed they were targeting Christians.

“We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for the group Al-Shabaab, which took responsibility for the armed assault, announced. “There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building.”

Terrorists Kill 70 In Attack on Kenyan College

A group of masked terrorists have killed at least 70 people and taken hostages after attacking Garissa University in Kenya.

The Islamic extremist group Al-Shabaab claimed the assault and said they were targeting the Christians at the school.

“We sorted people out and released the Muslims,” said terrorist spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab.  “There are many dead bodies of Christians inside the building. We are also holding many Christians alive. Fighting still goes on inside the college.”

Witnesses say that the terrorists had snipers on top of buildings to shoot those who were fleeing the dormitories during the attack.  Soldiers reportedly ordered the students to dive for cover as they escaped the building.

The terrorists say they are also holding a number of female Christians alive as hostages.

The vice chariman of the student union told Fox News that the gunmen were asking people about their faith.

“If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot,” he said. “With each blast of the gun I thought I was going to die.”

The terrorist group has targeted Kenya after that nation contributed forces to the African Union that drove Al-Shabaab from major cities in Somalia.

Christian Aid Mission Calls For Prayers For Kenya

The Christian aid group Christian Aid Mission is calling on the world’s believers to pray for the Christians of Kenya after a crackdown by the government on charity groups within the nation.

Amie Cotton with CAM says that al-Shabaab sympathizers had been using charity and non-profit organizations as a way to funnel money to the terrorist organization.  As a result, the government has banned all groups in the country.

A result of the ban is that churches in the region are closing down as terrorist groups intimidate those in the communities and the churches have no funding to try and fight the groups.  However, Cotton says God’s work is still going forward.

“Despite all of this, we still have reports that ministry is ongoing in multiple cities,” says Cotton.  “They go out every day, on the edge, knowing that terrorists have infiltrated. But they’re willing to go for the cause of Christ.”

Cotton says that despite the ban of NGOs, the group is still going to work through relationships with residents of the country.

“We have been in existence for over 60 years, and we have relationships with grass-roots Christian ministries that are indigenous to their cities and to Kenya as a whole,” Cotton answers.

Kenya Changes Security Officials After Terror Attack

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced a mass change in security officials after the Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab struck at a quarry in northeast Kenya.

The terrorists brutally executed any non-Muslim working at the quarry.  At least 36 people were confirmed dead and several others are missing.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the terror attack and said they will keep executing non-Muslims in Kenya until the country pulls their troops out of Somalia, where they are working with African Union forces to eliminate the terrorists.

Kenyan security officials say the terrorists snuck up on the workers while they were sleeping and then separated the Muslims before shooting others at close range.

President Kenyatta said that police chief David Kimaiyo and Interior Minister Joseph old Lenku are out.  He called on the parliament to quickly approve his proposed replacement because “our bickering only emboldens the enemy.”

Islamic Extremists Ambush Christians In Kenya

A group of Islamic extremists attacked two major Christian villages leaving at least 30 people dead in one attack and two men burned alive in the second.

The Morning Star News of Kenya reported that the Islamists attacked Covenant Church near Hindi after the close of a Bible study.  Two men hid inside the building while the rest of the Christians fled the attack and were burned alive when the Islamists torched the building.

Less than 48 hours earlier, the same group of Islamists attacked near Gamba and Hindi, killing all they found after telling Muslims and non-Christians to leave the area or convert to Islam.  One of the dead with a 12-year-old boy from a Christian primary school and other man who was executed point blank, put in a pool of his blood and then had a Bible jammed into his back.

One witness said the attackers bound their victims before killing them.

“I was removed with my daughter from the house while the attackers tied my husband to the bedside before setting the house on fire,” a survivor told Morning Star News.  “The attackers…targeted non-Muslims, whom they tied with ropes before slitting their throats.”

The government confirmed most of the dead had their hands bound behind their backs and had their throats slit.

One of the students killed had a small blackboard placed next to the body that read “Kick Christians out [of] coast.”

African Leaders Attempt To Stop South Sudan Civil War

Leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia are in South Sudan attempting to stop escalating violence in the country from breaking into total civil war.

Several leaders in South Sudan believe the country is already in a state of war.

Ethiopian Prime Minsiter Hailemariam Desalegn and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will be holding talks today with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir regarding the violence. Kiir started the insurrection by firing his cabinet months ago including the country’s Vice President.

Kiir claimed on December 15th that the former leaders were attempting a coup which was denied by his rivals. After the President made the declaration, violence broke out in the nation’s capital and has spread to surrounding cities.

The United Nations says mass graves have been found throughout the nation and they fear that thousands have already been killed in the violence. Witnesses report that Muslim militias are targeting Christians for mass slaughter.