A Muslim teacher in Kenya who protected
Christians on a bus after it was attacked by Islamist militants has been
posthumously honoured for his bravery.
Salah Farah was shot in the attack
in north-eastern Kenya in December and later died from his bullet wound.
The insurgents told the Muslims and
Christians to split up but he was among Muslim passengers who refused to do so.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said he was
awarding the Order Of The Grand Warrior to Mr Farah "for his act of
courage".
It is one of the country's top
honours and is awarded by the president for exemplary service to the country.
In previous attacks in the area,
Somalia-based al-Shabab militants have killed Christians and spared Muslims.
'Proud
of Kenyan unity'
Mr Kenyatta made the announcement
during his state of the union address in parliament.
He said that he was proud that
Kenyan had "refused to be divided by terrorism".
The bus was packed with about 60
passengers travelling from the capital, Nairobi, to the town of Mandera when it
was forced to stop on 20 December by gunmen firing shots.
Muslim women quickly offered
Christian women scarves to cover their heads when they were ordered off the bus
near the village of El Wak on the Somali border.
The year before, a
survivor of a similar attack recounted how passengers had been
spared if they could recite the Koran.
But Mr Farah, the deputy head of the
Mandera township primary school, told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper that the
Muslim passengers had confronted the gunmen.
"We asked them to kill all of
us or leave us alone," he said.
Image copyright AFP Image caption This
is the bus that was attacked in November 2014 - the militants killed 28
passengers
While this confrontation continued,
a lorry approached and the militants ambushed this vehicle too, killing an
off-duty policeman.
The BBC's Bashkas Jugsodaay in
Garissa says the militants then abandoned their attempt to kill the Christian
bus passengers as the Muslims were refusing to co-operate with them.
Altogether three people died at the
scene of the incident, including two passengers - one of whom had tried to run
away.
Mr Farah died a month later in the
capital, Nairobi, during surgery.
[ BBC]
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