ICC note: Islamic militants like Al-Shaabab and their affiliates continue to disturb civilians in Kenya by killing anyone they consider a threat. Many have died as victims of the extremist groups in the last few decades. However, witnesses assure that civilians are not only threaten by the Islamic militants, but are also harassed by the police who deny any form of abuse. These and other Islamist groups have engaged in several attacks against anyone they consider an unbeliever or infidel, especially Christians.

08/29/2016, Kenya (The Guardian) – A football field and a grove of mango trees lie between Bongwe and its neighbouring village. On one side live the family of 33-year-old Subira Mwangole, shot dead by gunmen while watching television with friends one evening in May. On the other live his alleged murderers.

The two villages, 30km south of the port city of Mombasa on Kenya’s coast, are almost identical: three-room houses with rusting tin or thatch roofs, a ramshackle primary school, a government office, a small mosque with white walls stained by rain, a crossroads where two tracks meet, a well, small plots of tall corn plants.

Yet, despite their placid appearances, the villages lie on the invisible frontline of a brutal, low-level, three-way war pitting security agencies against the Islamic extremist network al-Shabaab, and the militants against the local community. It is a war carried out by small groups of armed men who shoot first and ask few questions.

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