Displaying items by tag: Kenya

IJM reports, ‘Last week we celebrated justice for IJM lawyer WK, his client and their driver. Three police officers and one civilian were convicted of their murder’. Prior to 2016, few police officers had ever been convicted for murder - despite many instances of police abusing power. But in the past five years, 45 officers have been convicted on murder or manslaughter charges. This gives hope to victims and families of police abuse that justice is possible. ‘Also, praise God for the acquittal of an innocent IJM client in Kenya. He was framed for a crime he didn't commit. During the trial, the prosecution failed to produce any witnesses. He is now free, but please pray for him to be protected from further false accusations.’

This is one of the hardest times Kenyans have experienced. Four rainy seasons in a row have failed. The government declared a national disaster after only two consecutive failed rainy seasons. Since then, the short rains and the long rains have both failed again. Water is hard to find; cattle are dying. Even camels struggle to survive. The World Food Programme says half a million Kenyans could starve. Prolonged hunger and malnutrition have made people prone to disease: their weakened bodies can’t resist infections. In Muslim-dominated areas, Christians are usually left out when government food relief is distributed. Families used to earn their living as casual labourers or through small businesses, but normal life has ended with the catastrophic drought and famine which followed a series of other disasters.

Kenya is in a world of hurt. Joy Mueller of Kenya Hope says, ‘They look at having no food to feed their families and no money to pay school fees or buy the things they need. For the third year in a row, these poor people are just devastated. First, the pandemic locked everything down, so rural Kenyans couldn’t buy supplies or sell their livestock at the market. Then right on the heels of the pandemic, they got hit with a severe drought. All the water sources dried up; pastureland was gone and animals were dying. For the people here, their animals are their bank accounts. 2022 seemed to be the start of something better when they got some beautiful rain in February. Hope sprang again, but then they were hit by African armyworms. They’re called armyworms because they march across the field eating every green thing in their path.’

The Horn of Africa is in crisis with drought and food insecurity. 20 million are impacted or in need of aid; pray for the survival needs of both livestock and humans to be met after three failed rainy seasons back to back. In Somalia 4.3 million people are hungry, and people fear a repeat of the 2012 famine. In Ethiopia, the drought is compounding the humanitarian disaster of the war in the country’s north, while in neighbouring Kenya’s pastoralist zone, the loss of cattle is triggering raids and clashes between communities. In Myanmar farmers say the 2021 coup worsened food insecurity and is nothing short of a disaster. Humanitarian needs multiply and continue to spiral. One million people needed aid before the coup; now it’s 14 million. 500,000 people have been displaced since the coup, a quarter of the population is food insecure and violent new conflicts spread in a new wave of anti-coup militias. ‘There is fear everywhere’, one aid worker said.

A short drive from the United Nations complex in Nairobi where talks on a global plastics treaty took place recently is Kenya's biggest landfill - a mountain of garbage, carpeted in single-use plastic. The equivalent of thirty trucks full of throwaway plastic packaging, bags and containers is tipped onto Dandora dump every day - a trend set to worsen with global plastic pollution forecast to double over the next decade. This global waste crisis, which is destroying habitats, killing wildlife and contaminating the food chain, has sparked calls for radical action in a treaty billed as the most important environmental pact since the Paris Agreement. ‘Our expectation is that when the treaty is signed countries will commit to stop the production of such plastics’, said Hibrahim Otieno, and he is not alone. Three in four people want single-use plastics banned as soon as possible.

Rashid Mohamed Salim was cornered and captured by local youths on 29 January in a village in the DRC. He was handed over to the armed forces and arrested. University-educated Salim was radicalised as a teen at a popular mosque in Mombasa. He has been linked with recruiting youth into terror groups in East Africa, and with various terrorist activities. A source said, ‘This young man is a great terrorist. He is a very big player in the activities of slaughtering Christians. We have been receiving pictures and short films of him cutting Christians’ throats. He captures them or has them captured by fellow-rebels, then takes pictures of the murders on his phone and publishes them as propaganda.’ Kenya’s anti-terror police put a $100,000 reward for his capture. He was captured on his way back to Kenya from Cabo Delgado where he had joined Mozambique’s IS group.

Seth Mahiga, the former secretary of a society called Atheists In Kenya, has resigned from his role after becoming a Christian. A video has emerged showing Seth accepting Jesus in church. He said he had been experiencing ‘difficulties in life’ prior to his resignation. A pastor in the video can be heard saying ‘Amen’ at the end of Mr Mahiga's words, and he then added, ‘Can we give the Lord some praise in this house. Hallelujah!’ Atheists in Kenya posted the footage on its Twitter page, describing the conversion as ‘surreal’.

Locusts move like thick, dark clouds, tearing through parts of East Africa and devouring crop after crop, putting food supplies and farmers’ livelihoods at risk. These invasions aren’t new but they are happening more often than ever. ‘It is because of the change in climate’, said a satellite Information analyst in Nairobi. ‘Locusts that otherwise would have scattered for lack of vegetation to consume can now get lots of it’ Locusts invaded northern Kenya in January, devouring field crops, vegetables, cattle fodder and grazing land. Pray for organisations like Barnabas Fund who are assisting 1,000 vulnerable Christian families in the area. They aim to help subsistence farmers speedily restore their crop and livestock production, distributing seeds, fertiliser and appropriate pesticides to deal with locust eggs left in the soil and the surge in other pests that usually follow a locust swarm.

On 29 January Al-Qaeda’s Somali affiliate Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen released a video documenting preparations for a raid on Camp Simba US military base. The 55-minute video features a meeting between Al-Shabab leaders and the attackers; of training and preparations for the raid; final messages from the attackers; and drone footage of the raid in progress. The leader vowed more attacks on US targets and rallied his ‘soldiers of Allah’ saying, ‘I hope that base becomes the place where we hear the defeat of the disbelievers’, and encouraged Muslims in the Horn of Africa to join the ranks of his group. Also five churches were set ablaze in quick succession between 21 and 26 January. Pray for the fearful residents living in the area and the congregations of Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal and Catholic churches. See

This week the International Justice Mission invites us to join in praising God for a huge step forward in the class-action lawsuit that IJM Kenya helped bring against police, demanding greater accountability. One of the requests in the petition has been granted, and the court has ordered the inspector general to investigate 22 cases of police killings that were documented and presented as part of this petition. This case is important because it shows that the Kenyan government can be held accountable for the actions of its officers.