It is suspected that Al Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia, was involved in the killing of six Christians.
Sources indicate that the six Kenyan businessmen killed on March 29 in Dhobley were likely targets for promoting Christianity.
According to a Christian leader based in northern Kenya, a group of six covert Christians have been discretely selling plastic utensils and various other household goods in Dhobley, a town situated in the Lower Juba Region of Somalia, for six years.
“Our brothers had been doing business to support their families, but also sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the Muslims in Dhobley,” the leader told Morning Star News on condition of anonymity. “Two members of our church recently reported that several Muslims were secretly attending the evening prayers. This is probably what could have caused the Al Shabaab to kill them for spreading Christianity in the area.”
He identified the slain Christians as Joseph Githonga and Simon Karimi of the East Africa Pentecostal Church, Peter Muthuri and Thomas Muthee of the Kenya Assemblies of God, and James Mwendwa and John Kathure of the Anglican Church.
The late Githonga told the Christian leader in February that area converts from Islam had grown concerned over local complaints that the six Christians were praying in Christ’s name with Muslim neighbors and worshipping too loudly.
“My advice to them was to avoid singing and prayers but only to have Bible study to safeguard the Muslim background believers and themselves,” he said.
The assailants attacked the six men at their rented property, which included the shops from which they sold their wares and a back section as living quarters, the Christian leader said. They were shot to death at close range, he said.
In Kenya, Liboi Deputy County Commissioner Ali Manduku reportedly confirmed that suspected Al Shabaab militants killed six Kenyans.
A survivor of the attack reportedly said a Toyota Probux showed up near the traders’ shops around 7 a.m., and four hooded men began shooting, killing four merchants immediately, with two dying later. The assailants also set their shops ablaze.
The bodies of the slain Christians were taken to a mortuary in Garissa County, Kenya, the Christian leader said.
Somalia is ranked 2nd on the Christian support group Open Doors’ 2024 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most challenging to be a Christian.
According to the U.S. State Department, Somalia’s constitution establishes Islam as the state religion and prohibits the propagation of any other religion. It also requires that laws comply with sharia (Islamic law) principles, with no exceptions for non-Muslims.
Al Shabaab, which is allied with Al Qaeda, or Al Shabaab sympathizers, has also killed several non-local people in northern Kenya since 2011 when Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others in Kenya’s coast.
On April 2, 2015, 148 people at Garissa University College lost their lives in an attack by Al Shabaab, and several attacks on churches and Christians have taken place in Garissa, also in northern Kenya.
