DAVID ADAMS reports drawing on the resources of BosNewsLife and Morning Star News…
(with BosNewsLife/Morning Star News)
Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility on Saturday for killing 28 non-Muslims – including at least 19 Christians – traveling on a bus in northeast Kenya.
BosNewsLife reports that a bus carrying 60 passengers was on its way to Nairobi, the capital, when it was ambushed in Mandera County early on 22nd November, according to militants and witnesses.
“The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of (Islam’s) holy Quran (book)…Those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One-by-one they were shot in the head at point blank range.”– Passenger Ahmed Mahatsaid |
Gunmen reportedly waved down the bus before spraying it with bullets when it did not stop. They then shot a rocket-propelled grenade at the vehicle, before commandeering the bus off the road, survivors said.
The militants were seen ordering passengers to leave the vehicle before separating the travellers into Muslims and non-Muslims.
Passengers said militants then ordered the non-Muslims to reboard the bus.
When the bus got stuck in the mud, some 10 militants reportedly gathered the prisoners outside before carrying out the executions. They then fled to Somalia.
“The non-Somalis were ordered to read some verses of (Islam’s) holy Quran (book)…” recalled passenger Ahmed Mahatsaid. “Those who failed to read were ordered to lie down. One-by-one they were shot in the head at point blank range.”
Three people who were due to be killed were apparently spared after managing to successfully recite some of the verses.
Morning Star News reports that among those who were killed were 10 members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church; three members of the Anglican Church of Kenya; three members of the Redeemed Gospel Church; and three members of the East Africa Pentecostal Church (EAPC). The three slain members of the EAPC were youth leader Kennedy Tiraito and two choir and praise leaders, Patrick Mukopi and a woman identified only as Janet. Members of the Roman Catholic Church were among the remaining nine people who died.
A Christian on the bus, which was stopped about a half hour after leaving Mandera for Nairobi, told a Morning Star News source that he was spared because he could recite some Quranic verses.
“They said in Kiswahili, ‘Hard-haired men get out of the bus,’” a reference to Kenyans presumed to be non-Muslims as opposed to “soft-haired” Somalis presumed to be Muslims, the survivor said. “The attackers were mentioning the recent killings of (Islamic) clerics in Mombasa. We left the dead men and women lying outside the bus as we were commanded to leave while the attackers were watching over the dead bodies. The attackers fired into the air in jubilation after the attack.”
Meanwhile, another attack survivor at a hospital in Mandera, Douglas Ochwodho, told a visiting Morning Star News source that he lost his wife in the massacre. His wife, a Christian nurse, was lying next to him as the attackers executed the non-Muslims, leaving him spattered with blood, he said. As the two gunmen started executing people from each end of the line, making their way toward the middle where Ochwodho lay, each thought the other had killed him.
“The attackers thought they had killed me,” Ochwodho said. “When the attackers left, I got up, covered with blood, and fled the area.”
He confirmed that those who could not recite the Quranic shahada, a profession of Islamic faith, were ordered to lie on the ground.
The source in Mandera said Ochwodho was visibly shaken over the murder of his wife; he was receiving hospital treatment for shock.
“We were ordered to lie down, many of us, because we could not recite the Quran and we are from the well-known name meaning, ‘People from down Kenya,’ implying non-Somali, non-Muslims, and we are easily identified by our hard hair in comparison with the Somalis who have soft hair and light skin,” Ochwodho told the Morning Star News source.
BosNewsLife reports that the Mandera region has been flooded with weapons due to its proximity to Somalia, where al-Shabaab has been fighting to topple the government, and Ethiopia, whose armed Oromo Liberation Front has made incursions into Kenya.
Al-Shabaab said the attack was carried out “in retaliation” for security raids in mosques in Kenya’s second largest city, Mombasa, in the last week.
“The Mujahedeen intercepted a bus, which had on board a group of Christians that enjoyed the killing and the maiming of Muslims,” al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamed Rageh added in a statement read on Radio Andulus, a pro-al-Shabaab broadcaster.
Earlier, four people were stabbed to death in apparent revenge attacks, which saw gangs taking to the streets before beating and knifing their victims.
During the raids in mosques, one person was shot dead and more than 350 people were detained, following a series of bombings and shootings.
Officials said officers seized weapons and found black Islamist flags like those flown by al-Shabaab.
The latest bloodshed added to concerns among Christians in Kenya living near the border with Somalia.
Kenya has suffered a series of Islamic attacks since invading Somalia in 2011 to attack al-Shabaab, later joining an African Union force battling the Islamists.
Al-Shabaab also claimed responsibility last year for an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in which at least 67 people were killed, and for violence in the Lamu region in June and July in which at least 65 people died.
The group, whose leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in September, has pledged to drive Kenyan and other African Union peacekeeping troops out of Somalia. They also have murdered several Christians in Somalia, BosNewsLife reported in recent years.
However in televised remarks, Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto said Kenya would not end its struggle against terrorism.
“I want to assure you all that all those responsible for the loss of lives of Kenyans – we will pursue you everywhere, be it in Kenya, be it in Somalia,” he said.
Yet, the insecurity in East Africa’s biggest economy has prompted Western nations to issue travel warnings.
Analysts say the violence is hitting the tourism industry, a major source of hard currency, and foreign investments.
