ICC Note: Following the April 2 attack by al-Shabaab against Christian university students in Garissa, the country’s top church leaders are speaking out. During a recent press conference, a joint statement was released stating that, “the systematic profiling, isolation and massacre of Christians in different parts of Kenya must stop.” The government of Kenya has also received criticism from both the media and the public following the attack for the delay in response time.
By Tom Mboya
04/13/2015 Kenya (The Christian Post) – Leaders of major Christian denominations and a church coalition in Kenya last week closed ranks in a show of unity, warning that they will no longer remain silent as members of their flock are being killed in a religious war.
John Cardinal Njue of the Catholic Church; Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of the Anglican Church; the Rev. Joseph Nthombura of the Methodist Church; the Rev. David Gathanju of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa; and the Rev. Rosemary Mbogo of the National Council of Churches of Kenya held a press conference where they issued a joint statement.
“Dear Christians, fellow Kenyans and people of goodwill, we the shepherds of the flock of Christ are pained to admit that this was another case of Kenyans targeted because of their religion,” the statement said in response to the April 2 fatal attack by al-Shabaab on Christian students that left nearly 150 dead. “We regret to note that most of those killed were young Christians in a prayer session. The systematic profiling, isolation and massacre of Christians in different parts of Kenya must stop. While urging our Christians to be peace makers, we will not remain silent as they continue to be massacred.”
Canon Francis Omondi, an Anglican pastor who ministers in Garissa, also acknowledged in an interview with CP on Thursday that the attack by al-Shabaab was religious in nature.
The leaders of the four mainstream churches, after visiting the Chiromo Funeral Parlour in Nairobi where bodies of the slain students were being kept awaiting identification, further castigated the government for what they said was a lackluster response to the attack.
