In a secluded house just outside the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, a group of men and women meet at least once a week to worship in secret.
Their prayer session is simple and conducted in Somali. People take turns to pray or read verses from the Somali bible before a message is delivered.
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There are dozens of Somalis living in Nairobi who have converted from Islam to Christianity. But they live in constant fear of persecution from members of the Somali community, which is mainly Muslim. There is a sizeable Somali community in Kenya, comprising ethnic Somali Kenyans, and a large number of refugees from Somalia.
For a few, it was the threat of religious persecution that forced them to leave their homes and seek refuge in Kenya.
"There was a group of people who wanted to kill me, so I was one of the first refugees to leave Mogadishu because I knew I would be a target as soon as the government collapsed," says Michael, one of the converts. " The fundamentalists could easily attack me and kill me," he says.
Some of his fellow converts were not so lucky. "They killed some of my friends. There was a small fellowship that used to meet in my house, about 12 of them, six of them were killed," he says.
Despite fleeing to Kenya, where Christianity is the major religion, life has still not improved for the Somali Christians. They say they have suffered at the hands of their families and fellow Somalis in Kenya who are angry with their decision to change their religion.
They have been targets of physical attacks and beatings. In other instances, they have had their wives and children taken away from them. Away from home and rejected by their community, the converts say they have been forced to live as outcasts.
Despite the hardships the face, this unique group of Christians says its numbers are growing. In the late 1990s, there were barely 20 Somali Christians in Nairobi, but now their number is close to 200, they say.
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