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This month marks the ten-year anniversary of when Islamic terrorists stormed the Garissa University College in Kenya, murdering 148 Christian students and injuring at least 79.

On April 2, 2015, gunmen took over 700 students hostage at the university campus. According to the witnesses, the terrorists asked the victims about their religion and segregated the Muslims from the Christians, intending to execute those who identified as Christians.

Student Collins Wetangula told the Associated Press that when the militants stormed his dorm, he could hear them demanding if residents were Muslim or Christian.

“If you were a Christian, you were shot on the spot. With each blast of the gun, I thought I was going to die.”

“All I could hear were footsteps and gunshots; nobody was screaming because they thought this would lead the gunmen to know where they are,” he said. “The gunmen were saying sisi ni al-Shabab” (That is Swahili for “We are al-Shabaab.”)

The siege ended the same day, after all four of the attackers were killed.

The terrorist group al-Shabaab took responsibility for the attack. The group had also claimed responsibility for a deadly 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. This incident left 67 people dead and over 150 wounded.

Since then, Islamic terrorist attacks in Kenya and many other African nations have remained ongoing. In the latest incident, on March 23, 2025, al-Shabaab killed six police personnel after assailants attacked a base near the Somali border.

A jihad group formed in the early 2000s, Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, was quickly nicknamed al-Shabaab, which means “The Youth.” It seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab was created as a member of the Islamic Courts Union, a coalition of Sharia law courts united against the federal government of Somalia. In 2012, al-Shabaab pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda. Today, al- Shabaab controls parts of central and southern Somalia, where it enforces Sharia law.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, in the areas it controls, al-Shabaab prohibits “various types of entertainment, such as movies and music; the sale of khat, a narcotic plant that is often chewed; smoking; and the shaving of beards. Stonings and amputations have been meted out to suspected adulterers and thieves. At the same time, the group bans cooperation with humanitarian agencies, creating a harrowing challenge in the face of unprecedented droughts.”

Al-Shabaab poses the most significant threat to religious freedom in Kenya, according to the human rights organization Open Doors. The group is explicitly anti-Christian, and seeks to eliminate Christian influences in all areas which they control or influence. Their ties extend to other militant groups across Africa, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and various Algerian factions, thereby providing them with additional resources and ideological backing.

Al-Shabaab is capable of carrying out massive attacks in Somalia and nearby countries, despite a long-running African Union offensive against the terrorist group. In June 2023, for instance, al-Shabaab jihadists murdered five civilians (some by beheading) in eastern Kenya. In 2024, the terror group made significant attempts to reclaim some lost territory.

There are 44 million Christians in Kenya. It is overwhelmingly a Christian-majority nation, with about 82% of its inhabitants identifying as Christians. Despite this, the country has increasingly become a target of religious persecution, primarily at the hands of al-Shabaab.

According to the World Christian Database (WCD 2023), approximately 7.9% of Kenyans are Muslims, the majority being Sunni. These Muslim populations have concentrated themselves in specific geographic regions, such as the northeastern regions.

Open Doors reports that counties such as Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Lamu, Kilifi, and Kwale have historically been under strong Islamic influence. In those counties, jihadist Muslims, both local and those infiltrating from Somalia, have targeted Christians, leading to numerous deaths. In the areas in Kenya where Islam is dominant, the persecution against non-Muslims is from Islamic oppression, and the intensity is very high, notes Open Doors.

Christians living near the northeastern border with Somalia face particularly dire circumstances. Al-Shabaab has entrenched itself within local communities, making it extremely difficult for security forces to effectively combat the group. Consequently, Christians in northeastern Kenya live in a state of perpetual insecurity.

This persecution has forced many Christians, especially those with Muslim backgrounds, to abandon their homes and relocate to safer areas such as Nairobi, or in some cases, to leave the region altogether. The situation has led to the closure of numerous churches and a significant reduction of a Christian presence in these volatile areas.

Kenyan women and girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault and rape. They face abduction by al-Shabaab and sexual slavery, as well as intense pressure to convert to Islam. Christian boys and men risk physical assault and death at the hands of jihadist Muslims, particularly in the northeastern region.

Islamic jihad activity in Kenya has continuously escalated since the 1990s. The Islamic Party of Kenya, founded in 1992, was banned in 1994, leading to a period of protests and fragmentation among Islamic groups. The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021 has emboldened similar groups such as al-Shabaab, fueling the belief that foreign forces in Somalia will eventually withdraw, paving the way for their expansion into Kenya and beyond.

However, the Islamic oppression in Kenya does not only come from al-Shabaab. The drivers of Islamic oppression targeting Christians in Kenya are Islamic groups, Islamic religious leaders, and Muslim citizens. Politicians from Muslim-majority areas in Kenya also aim to eradicate Christian influence in their regions, reports Open Doors.

• Religious teachers in Islamic educational institutions such as madrassas play a significant role in promoting antagonistic views toward Christians. These leaders often use their platforms to indoctrinate young minds with Islamic jihad ideologies, paving the way for future persecution. In coastal and northeastern Kenya, Islamic clerics have been known to issue fatwas against converts to Christianity, thereby escalating the threats against them.
• Muslim people from broader society are also among the perpetrators of persecution. In regions where Muslims are the majority, local communities often view Christians as outsiders or invaders. The rhetoric of groups such as al-Shabaab fuel this sentiment, making life increasingly difficult for Christians, especially those who have converted from Islam. The social ostracization extends to various aspects of life, including business, education, and social interactions, effectively creating second-class citizens out of Christian community members.
• Meanwhile, for those who convert to Christianity in Kenya, family can often become a significant source of persecution. The notion of abandoning Islam is perceived not just as a personal choice, but as an act of betrayal against the family, community, and broader ethnic group. There have been instances where family members themselves have carried out acts of violence against converts, emphasizing the deeply rooted nature of this form of persecution.

As is obvious from the Islamic oppression targeting Kenyan Christians, Islamic jihad is not about the economic or social status of Muslims, their so-called “grievances” or “victimhood.” It is theological. From Kenya to Somalia, from Pakistan to India, from Syria to Egypt, and from Canada to Europe, the goal of jihadist groups worldwide remains the same: to conquer nations, Islamize their lands and subjugate non-Muslims.

The question is: when will the non-Muslim world wake up? When will they start honestly and publicly addressing the issue and take precautions to eliminate these jihadist groups more effectively so that jihad’s oppressive and annihilationist goals will no longer plague nations?

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist formerly based in Ankara.