A number of Kenyans living abroad have over the last few months fallen victim to increasing number of hate crimes in US and European cities.
In the US, two men are awaiting trial for hate crimes perpetrated on a Kenyan man in Wisconsin.
Justin Hurst and David DiMaggio face charges of beatings, felony battery, false imprisonment and threats of torture and death against Mageria Kamau.
Kamau met the accused men at bar in the city of Blanchardville on the evening of July 27th and they bonded when one of them spoke to him in Swahili. Later that night, he met the men again in a different pub and after a few drinks; he agreed to go for a ride with them in Hurst’s car.
According court documents, the trio went to Di Maggio’s house where Hurst flew into a drunken rage. He called Kamau a terrorist and demanded to know why he was in the US and in Blanchardville.
Kamau told police that as Hurst drank vodka, he played with Kamau’s fingers while saying slowly, “We are going to kill you slowly. We will cut your fingers first to make it painful, then we will kill you and hide your body in the dirt and nobody will ever know.”
Kamau said that when he started crying and asking him why he was taking him through the ordeal, Hurst started beating him viciously saying “Cuz I am fed up seeing (n-word) like you coming to my country and my town thinking they can do whatever they like. … I know you have an agenda.”
He told police that he escaped after DiMaggio forced him into Hurst’s car and drove him to the end of his driveway before ordering him out of the car. Shortly thereafter he heard a gunshot and he dove into some nearby bushes. He vanished into the cornfields as the two men searched for him.
Hurst’s trail will be on January 29 while DiMaggio will appear in Court on February 21.
In a separate incident, A Kenyan man and his American wife were harassed with hate mail for almost two years by a man who was against their interracial marriage.
Nathan Maingi and his wife who are residents of Florida lived in fear between 2010 and 2012 as they did not know where the mail was coming from. The mail mostly contained racial slurs against Maingi and often used the “N” word.
In another incident, a Kenyan woman was pushed into railway tracks in Vienna, Austria just thirty seconds before a train was supposed to arrive at the station.
The suspect told the police during subsequent questioning that he was agitated by the woman’s loud conversation on her cell phone. He said he hit her before pushing her into the tracks.
Austria’s State broadcaster ORF reported that during the incident, the suspected hurled racial slurs.
On Monday, the Associated Press reported the incident but did not name the woman as the Austrian authorities did not provide the names of both the suspect and the victim as per Austrian traditions. However, a Kenyan blog in Germany Mkenya Ujerumani identified her as Nelly.
The 36 year old woman was rescued by onlookers who also managed to stop the train before it reached the station.
She suffered a broken leg among other injuries and is currently in hospital.
In an incident which occurred on New Year’s weekend in Germany, a Kenyan man was attacked in a club and suffered serious injuries to his face.
The man known by his Kenyan counterparts as Jimmy James was working at the Berlin club when two German men approached him as if asking for help. They lured him into a restroom where one of them hit him on the face with a glass. The glass shattered on his left eye leaving him with deep cuts that landed him in hospital. Jimmy said that the two men were hitting and kicking him as they hurled racial slurs.
A group of Kenyans on Friday held peaceful demonstrations outside the club to protest the attack.
On the same weekend, a Kenyan student was attacked twice in the German town of Efurt. The student who posted the incidences on Mkenya Ujerumani said that she was leaving work late in the night when both attacks occurred. She did not post her name.
On the first instance, she writes that a group of young men threw firecrackers on her face.
On the second instance she writes that she was on her way to catch a taxi, when a group of men walked by and started calling her the “N” word. One of them emptied his beer all over her and hit her on the head with the beer bottle. She wrote that bystanders did not intervene.
She now says she fears for her life and will seek a job that will allow her to work during the day.
Kenyans in Germany have seen a rise in racial on their counterparts and community leaders are urging them to exercise caution especially when travelling alone.
Last year, a Kenyan man in UK was attacked while heading home following a soccer game.
Related article:VIDEO: Rapper Dares Embassy Over Racial Assault on a Kenyan in Germany
Source:jambonewspot
