While speaking with International Christian Concern (ICC), Fredrick’s wife, Penianh Mwatha, eulogized her husband as a “caring, prayerful, and a friendly person who I hoped to spend the rest of my life with. I am still in shock. Fredrick has left me with a 2-year-old son too soon. It is painful to lose him.”
“I don’t know what my future will be, but I am persuaded that one day we shall see him in heaven,” said Peninah, amidst tears.
Joshua was the mechanic of the attacked bus that is owned by a Somali businessman. Victor Oketch, Joshua’s brother, reported, “His Somali colleagues, the driver, and the conductor, did nothing to defend him. This shows you how religious animosity is at the core of persecution in northeastern Kenya.”
This is not the first time that Christians have been profiled and executed by the al-Qaeda affiliated group, al-Shabaab. In 2014, 28 people were killed after being singled out from fellow Muslim passengers in Mandera. In 2015, al-Shabaab targeted Christian students at Garissa University, killing 148 people while sparing Muslims students. In 2016, 12 Christians were killed at a guesthouse in Mandera. Four people were also hacked to death in 2017 in Lamu after they were profiled and failed to recite the Shahada.
For interviews with Nathan Johnson, Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org