Catholic World News News Feature

Kenyan Church Rejects Suicide Finding in Priest's Death April 20, 2001

NAIROBI, Apr. 20, 01 (CWNews.com) – Church leaders in Kenya are rejecting the conclusion reached by American FBI agents that the death of Father Anthony Kaiser was a case of suicide.

Father Kaiser, an American member of the Mill Hill missionary order, died of gunshot wounds on August 24, 2000. An investigative team sent to Kenya by the FBI to probe the killing released its report on April 19.

Nairobi’s Archbishop Raphale Ndingi Mwana’a Nzeki responded to the FBI report with a guarded statement, including that the Church would study the FBI conclusions and issue a response at an appropriate time.

But Bishop Colin Cameron Davies of the Ngong diocese, where Father Kaiser was stationed at the time of his death, was more outspoken. He flatly rejected the notion that the priest had killed himself, and charged that the FBI had reached a "cheap" conclusion in an effort to avoid the problem.

"This is a clear case of murder, and obviously there was a murderer," the bishop said.

Bishop Davies pointed out that the doctor who conducted the autopsy on the priest’s body had concluded that the gun that killed him was not held against his head, but was fired from more than four feet away. Another doctor, he added, had confirm observed bloodstains in Father Kaiser's pockets. "How doe he blow off his head and then proceed to put his hands in his pocket? Asked the bishop.

"You have not heard the last of this," Bishop Davies said. He promised that the Church would continue to investigate the priest’s death.

Father Kaiser had been an outspoken advocate of the poor in Kenya, and when he died last year, many Kenyans assumed that he had been the victim of an execution. Kenya's poor human-rights record, and its history of unresolved murders and suspicious deaths of human-rights advocates, contributed to the widespread belief that the killing was a deliberate murder.

Father Dan Kenny, another American priest working in Kenya, described the FBI report as ridiculous. Father Kenny, who is now working at Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi, said that as a US citizen he is embarrassed that the FBI—which came to Kenya at the invitation of the Nairobi government to probe the crime—could reach such an absurd conclusion.

Gibson Kamau Kuria, a leader of the Law Society of Kenya, said that the FBI conclusion was "incredible." He observed: "Those who knew Kaiser know that he was not the kind of person who could commit suicide."

However, Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako said that the findings in the FBI report matched those of the Kenyan Criminal Investigation Department.

The FBI investigators concluded that there was no link between the death of Father Kaiser and an alleged conflict between the priest and a Kenyan cabinet minister, Julius Ole Sunkuli. The report acknowledged that Father Kaiser had believed that Sunkuli, a minister in the office of the president, was responsible for the government's decision to declare him a prohibited migrant in the country. Father Kaiser had also expressed concern that Sunkuli or other senior government officials had targeted him in some way.

The killing of Father Kaiser is only the latest in a series of unresolved deaths among foreign-born Catholics living in Kenya. The other cases are:

- In January 1997, Brother Larry Timmons—an Irish national and Catholic monk—was shot and killed by police officers responding to an alleged robbery in Njoro, near Nakaru. Police initially reported the case as an accident , but Church officials termed the incident suspicious, noting that Timmons had recently criticized local government officials about corruption. - In September 1998, Father Luigi Andeni, an Italian priest who had been working in Kenya since 1970, was killed in his home in the Samburu district. His home was robbed, and authorities attributed the killing to thieves. However, Father Andeni had become controversial because of his efforts to mediate ethnic disputes. - In September 1994, Father Martin Boyle, another Irish citizen, was attacked and killed on a highway near Nairobi. He was reportedly carrying a large sum of money collected for a development project, and again the crime was chalked up as a case of armed robbery. One Kenyan bishop, however, has voiced suspicions that a ranking government official was involved in the murder. - In January 1991, Father Luigi Guiseppe Graiff, an Italian, was killed, also in the Samburu district. Two altar boys died with him. The murders have been described as ethnic slayings. - In November 1965, Father Michael Stallone, another Italian, was killed as he inspected a church-building site at the southern end of Lake Turkana.

None of these crimes has been resolved, and no one is currently facing charges in any of these cases. - by Fredrick Nzwili.