Kenya: Al-Shabaab Jihadists Continue slaughter of Christians in Lamu West
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Less than two weeks after suspected al-Shabaab jihadists beheaded a 72-year-old Christian man in Kenya’s Lamu West County, terrorists kidnapped and murdered a 60-year-old Christian man in the same area on Dec. 5, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
During the Dec. 5 attack, the terrorists abducted Mutemi Kunga from near his home in the predominantly Christian farming village of Poromoko in Lamu West at around 6 pm, and slaughtered him later the same day, ICC reports.
“The killers started by waylaying an elderly man as he walked home from the farm and took him away,” a local resident told ICC. “His family tried to look for him in vain and decided to stay away from the home since they suspected that they could be attacked at night. Other villagers also fled from their homes. At night, we heard gunshots coming from the side of his home. We also fled in the opposite direction for our safety,” the resident recounted.
The villagers, including Kunga’s children, spent the night hiding in bushes, waiting for morning to look for him, ICC reports. One of Kunga’s sons told ICC: “We could not sleep in our home since we knew that they would come again at night with our father and kill us. So early in the morning, we emerged from the bushes and went home, only to find the lifeless body of our father lying in a pool of blood. They had butchered him. They also killed all our goats and chickens and burnt down our house.”
In its report, ICC noted: “The Christian population in Lamu West has endured a series of religiously motivated terror activities since June 2023, compelling thousands to flee their homes and seek refuge in IDP camps.”
Christianity is the majority religion in Kenya (82%), but believers in Lamu County have increasingly suffered violent attacks and displacement from their villages by al-Qaeda-affiliate al-Shabaab jihadists who infiltrate local populations from their base in neighboring Somalia.
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