Kenya is 80% Christian, including over 600,000 Orthodox Christians.
The website Orthodox Christian Initiative for Africa offers regular news on the Orthodox Church in Kenya and all over the continent.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Kenya, see here.
“Catholic Priest in Kenya Assaulted by Mob for Attempting to Rescue Girls from FGM,” by Agnes Aineah, ACIAfrica, December 13, 2023:
The Parish Priest of St. Kizito Catholic Church of Kenya’s Diocese of Eldoret was left with serious injuries after he was attacked for trying to rescue young girls from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) outside the Parish premises.
In a Wednesday, December 13 interview with ACI Africa, Fr. Amos Kimutai who is known among the residents of the Embobut community in Kenya’s Elgeyo Marakwet County for his deep passion for fighting FGM in the area said that the attack happened in the morning hours of December 9 while he was preparing himself to officiate a wedding in one of the outstations of the Parish.
“I started hearing the altercations outside our fence from 6 a.m. I could recognize them as noises of a circumcision from the songs that the crowd was singing,” Fr. Amos said.
The Kenyan Catholic Priest made numerous attempts to report the incident to the police. After his calls were answered, the Priest decided to act.
He said, “Hearing the frightened cries of the young girls provoked me and so, I went out to try to rescue them. Out there in the open, there was a group of six men who were armed with sticks and machetes. The men surrounded elderly women who were performing the circumcision.”
“I could see a group of about 50 young girls and some women who were being circumcised while the men stood on guard to ensure that no one interfered with the process,” he further recalled during the interview with ACI Africa.
Fr. Amos tried to drive the men away, armed with a stick he is always seen walking with. The men landed on him with blows, hitting him with their machetes and stones.
“They hit me so badly. I have bruises on my head, neck, and back. My hands were also injured as I tried to block their blows,” Fr. Amos says. Outnumbered, the Kenyan Priest says he had to find a way to escape and the group was left to complete the circumcision.
Two days later, while Fr. Amos recuperated at a hospital in Eldoret town, which is a distance of about 6 hours’ drive from Embobut, an elderly police officer who rescued another group of girls from the cut in Embobut was stoned to death and his body burnt in a mattress.
“The police who had failed to come to my rescue only sprang into action when one of their own was killed,” Fr. Amos said of the Monday, December 11 police killing in Marakwet East, which has attracted global condemnation.
The Kenyan Catholic Priest told ACI Africa that Marakwet East is at the height of FGM and that he has been putting his life on the line to fight the vice, which is deeply entrenched in the community….
