"Al-Shabaab militants first put a price on the head of Pastor Mahad Birik in 2009, through Kenyan and Somali media and over mosque loudspeakers.
"The church leader, who lives in Nairobi, says longstanding threats have heightened since film footage of him describing his conversion was broadcast in the Somali media two months ago.
"The pastor, a father of two, says: 'My family is now living in a sleepless state. My life and that of my family is in imminent danger.'
"Pastor Mahad is no stranger to persecution. He reports several recent occasions when men, apparently of Somali origin, have followed him or tried to locate him. He was brutally attacked in 2008 and 2009, and has been forced to relocate his family at least once. Raised in northern Kenya by parents from Somalia, he was disowned by his family when he became a Christian. His relatives took his first wife away – and all his property."