Kenya evangelists cleared of incitement charges

NAIROBI, Kenya — A court in Nairobi, Kenya, acquitted two U.S. evangelists and their Kenyan counterparts Nov. 9 of charges of inciting Muslims to violence.

Orisio Andrew Saucier and Paul Eddie Garcia of Calvary Baptist Church, Ngong, Kenya, were declared free men by Magistrate Hellen Wasilwa, who noted that the anti-Islamic literature used by the defendants was similar to anti-Christian literature common in Muslim bookstores — without causing Christians to raise charges of "incitement to violence."

Saucier, Garcia and their Kenyan colleagues, Michael Otange Muleyi and Patrick Mutinda Ngei, had been charged with inciting Muslims to violence at Ngong township, on the outskirts of Nairobi, where they are based.