Al-Shabaab kills Kenyan Christians for refusing to recite the Islamic Shahada

Al-Shabaab fighters have reportedly killed three Christians in Kenya's Lamu County last Friday after they refused to recite the Shahada — the Islamic prayer of faith. The militants also killed a fourth Christian man who is said to be mentally challenged.

According to World Watch Monitor, a group of armed men dragged a man identified as Changawa Muthemba out of his home in Kasala Kairu, Lamu County, and took him to the house of his 42-year-old brother-in-law Joseph Kasena, where a 17-year-old neighbor, Kadenge Katana, also happened to be at the time.

The militants then ordered the three Christians to recite the Shahada while pointing machetes at them. When the Christians failed to recite the prayer, the attackers began tying them up and started hacking them to death when they resisted. The suspects then went to the house of Kasena's older brother, Charo, and killed him.

Kasena's wife, Caroline, was said to be "severely traumatized" after witnessing the attack, according to a local source.

"Joseph was an elder at a local church. He did communal farming, worked as a cook in a local hotel and also served as a night guard at the home of an expatriate family, who had to leave the area due to the deteriorating security situation. His wife runs a small kiosk," the source noted.

The source explained that Al-Shabaab militants and their sympathizers are "deeply embedded" in the communities of wider Lamu and Tana, in coastal Kenya, near the country's border with Somalia.

"They move around freely and often are at odds with the Kenyan farmers, deliberately sending their animals to feed on their crops. Locals complain that the police are not doing anything about the situation and even show preferential treatment to the herders," the source said.

The source recounted that some locals were threatened by Somali herdsmen earlier that day, but said that the encounter was not the reason for the attack. However, the source contended that the encounter provided the opportunity for the killings and that Al-Shabaab knew that the men were Christians.

Last month, nine Kenyans belonging to a local church were beheaded by the militant group in the Pandaguo area of Lamu West. One witness named Johnson Kitsao narrated that the attackers were "specifically looking for non-Muslim men."

The Associated Press noted that beheadings by al-Shabaab have been relatively rare in Kenya, but the group has stepped up attacks in the country in recent weeks.

Al-Shabaab, which has been designated as the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa last year, has vowed retribution against Kenya after it sent troops across the border to Somalia in 2011 to fight the group.