Kenyan police kill dozens of protesters before election

Kenyan police killed at least 33 people and injured hundreds of others during post-election protests staged in some of the country’s opposition strongholds, according to a joint report from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The accusations come ahead of an election redo later this month that triggered renewed demonstrations.

The report includes accounts from victims, witnesses, and police officials, among others. In one instance, a relative of 26-year-old Thomas Odhiambo Okul said Okul died after police shot him in an alley outside his house. Other casualties detailed in the report include a 9-year-old girl who was shot while standing on a balcony and an 8-months pregnant woman who fainted from inhaling tear gas and was eventually trampled to death.

“Dozens of people were killed and many more left with life-altering injuries in attacks by the police against opposition supporters,” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director. “This deadly use of excessive force has become a hallmark of police operations in Kenya and must be decisively stopped before the next election takes place.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga in the country’s Aug. 8 presidential election. The Kenyan Supreme Court last month nullified the election, citing procedural irregularities, and ordered a new vote for Oct. 26.

Odinga pulled out of the election last week after accusing the electoral commission of failing to make necessary reforms, including changing the technology company and ballot provider used in the first vote. He called on his supporters to stage daily demonstrations this week against the commission. The Kenyan government last week banned demonstrations in three of Kenya’s largest cities, citing an “imminent danger of breach of peace,” but protests continued Monday.

Police spokesman George Kinoti rejected the report on police brutality and described it as “sensational.” Peter Aling’o, a Nairobi-based analyst with the Institute for Security Studies, agreed the police responded with force to protesters. Last week, the police used live bullets on protesters in Kisumu, Aling’o said. “There were deaths there, including the death of a schoolboy,” he added.

The U.S. State Department on Friday called on Kenyan security forces to exercise restraint and urged Kenyans to demonstrate peacefully. Aling’o said tensions would remain in the coming days unless the electoral commission makes amendments ahead of the Oct. 26 election. “We merely don’t want to see an election for the sake of it,” Aling’o said. “But the environment this election could take place in doesn’t [support] freely democratic elections.”

No progress in case of murdered Indian pastor

The son of a murdered pastor from India’s Punjab state accuses police of “not taking the case seriously” enough.

“Three months have passed since the incident and they have yet to find any concrete leads. In the name of interrogation, we are being harassed by the police,” Alisha Masih said during an Oct. 8 news conference. Masih also said the family hasn’t received the government-promised compensation. Officials told The Tribune of India the compensation is coming.

Two unidentified men on a motorcycle shot Pastor Sultan Masih to death outside Temple of God Church on July 15. Security cameras captured the killing, and the images shocked the public and drew media attention. But the video was too dark to identify the assailants.

William Stark with International Christian Concern said he wasn’t surprised by Alisha Masih’s claims. It is “fairly typical” of Indian officials to make promises about justice and compensation during public outrage and media attention over persecution, he said, but they often fail to follow through.

Two factors complicate the government’s response in this instance: general police incompetence and the crime’s religious motivation. Both make justice unlikely, Stark said.

Shortly after the murder, Alisha Masih said the assailants targeted his father because of his faith and claimed unknown individuals had threatened the pastor with death if he kept preaching, according to World Watch Monitor. In May, a group of men asked Masih if he paid converts, a common accusation used against India’s religious minorities. Masih insisted he welcomed only genuine converts. —Julia A. Seymour

Coptic priest murdered in Cairo

Egypt’s Coptic Church said a knife-wielding attacker murdered a priest last week on the streets of Cairo. The church said in a statement the attacker hit the Rev. Samaan Shehata on his head with a cleaver. He later died in a hospital. According to World Watch Monitor, the 45-year-old priest from the town of Beni Suef was visiting a family in a poorer district in Cairo when the attack occurred. Security officials arrested the attacker and said they were investigating the killing. The incident is the latest deadly attack targeting the Coptic Christian minority group in Egypt. The Islamic State (ISIS) has killed more than 100 Copts since December in targeted attacks. “Coptic Christians who have endured injustice, persecution, and loss of life for centuries without retaliation, repeatedly forgiving unconditionally, deserve to live with respect and dignity in their indigenous homeland,” Bishop Anba Angaelos, leader of the Coptic Church in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. —O.O.

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Boat with fleeing Rohingya Muslims sinks off Bangladesh

At least 12 people died Monday when a boat overcrowded with Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma, also known as Myanmar, capsized in the Bay of Bengal. Police official Sheikh Ashrafuzzaman said survivors reported that up to 65 people boarded the boat, nearly half of them children. At least 21 people survived, Ashrafuzzaman said. Some 537,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Burma into neighboring Bangladesh since renewed clashes between Rohingya militants and government security officials Aug. 25. At least 184 Rohingya have died in boat accidents as they attempted to cross into Bangladesh. Many of the survivors have shared stories of atrocities they faced at the hands of Myanmar security forces. European Union foreign ministers in a Monday joint statement called for the perpetrators of crimes against the Rohingya to face justice. —O.O.

President declares Philippine city liberated from ISIS

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday declared the southern city of Marawi liberated from pro-ISIS militants who seized control of it in May. Duterte made the declaration amid cheers before an audience of troops at a ruined school campus in Marawi. Despite the declaration, the military continues to fight against a reduced number of militants to gain control of the last pocket of the city. Military spokesman Restituto Padilla said between 20 and 30 militants remain in Marawi with about 20 hostages. Earlier Monday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed security troops killed the last two surviving leaders of the siege. They included Isnilon Hapilon, who is among the FBI’s most wanted terror suspects, and Omarkhayam Maute. —O.O.

Italian priest kidnapped in Nigeria

Gunmen in Nigeria’s southern Benin state on Thursday kidnapped an Italian priest at gunpoint, religious officials confirmed. Vatican Radio said the gunmen kidnapped the Rev. Maurizio Pallu, 63, as he was traveling with a group of four other people. The Florence native is a traveling priest with the Family Foundation of Nazareth and served as a missionary in Nigeria for three years. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said Pope Francis had been informed of the incident. John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, the archbishop of the Nigerian capital Abuja, told Italy’s TV2000 that “security forces are doing everything possible to find him.” Kidnappings for ransom are common in Nigeria, where victims are often released after payment. —O.O.

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