There was a remarkable performance of the scripture Love your neighbor as yourself – Mark 12:31 in Kenya, this past week.
The BBC reports of the admirable act of bravery by a bus full of Muslims passengers. The bus was travelling with Muslim and Christian passengers on board from Nairobi, Kenya to the town of Mandera. As the bus approached the north-eastern village of El Wak, Islamic extremist gunmen ambushed it and asked the Muslims to step aside from the Christians. Instead of complying, the Muslims passengers stood up for their Christian counterparts by refusing to be grouped into a religious safety net. They weren’t ready to leave the Christians to the nozzles of the terrorist’s guns. They courageously told the gun men to “kill them together or leave them alone.” According to a local governor, one person was killed when he tried to escape after getting off the bus.
The show of unity from the passengers changed the murderous agenda of the militants. They packed up and left.
Al-Shabab, a Somali-based radical Islamic group known for attacking Christians claimed responsibility for the attack. They were behind the April attack and massacre of 148 students and staff in Garissa University College, Kenya. Mandera’s Governor Ali Roba told Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper “The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other.”
Al-Shabab has been at war with Kenya since October 2011 when Kenyan forces entered Somalia in in an effort to crush the militants.
Al-Shabab attacks in Kenya
September 2013 – Al-Shabab militants seize the Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi, killing 67 people.
June 2014 – At least 48 people die after Islamist militants attack hotels and a police station in Mpeketoni, near the island resort of Lamu.
November 2014 – The group targets a bus full of teachers in Mandera County, executing 28 non-Muslims at point-blank range.
December 2014- Al-Shabab kills 36 non-Muslim quarry workers near the north Kenyan town of Mandera.
April 2015 – Militants carry out a massacre at Garissa University College in north-east Kenya, killing 148 people.
Bus picture by Manase Otsialo.
May Olusola is the Founder and Publisher of MannaEXPRESS.
