Kenyan church welcomes new investigation into death of Fr Kaiser
The Catholic Church in Kenya has welcomed the government's move to order a fresh investigation at the level of a public inquest into the death of a religious priest who died in mysterious circumstances in August 2000. The Church rejected a suicide verdict reached by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in April 2001, and has all along been pushing for a public inquest. Last Wednesday, April 2, 2003, Kenya's Attorney General Hon Amos Wako, announced that a public inquest would be constituted to investigate the death of Fr John Anthony Kaiser, a member of the Mill Hill Missionaries. His body was found at Naivasha, 100 km north of the capital Nairobi, on August 25, 2000 with bullet wound to his head. "I have directed that the Investigation File be placed before the Chief magistrate with a view of holding a public inquest," Wako said in a statement issued on Wednesday. Speaking to Catholic Information Service Africa (CISA) , Archbishop John Njue, Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference said the Church hoped that the truth would come out this time. "It is a welcome move," he said, "We hope that the matter will be dealt handled with the seriousness it deserves." "We asked for this since the release of the FBI report, but we never received any reply from the Attorney General during the former regime," the Archbishop said. He added: "We said that we were never comfortable with that report, and would not accept it." Archbishop Njue told CISA that the bishops brought up the issue when the Episcopal Conference met with President Mwai Kibaki at State House Nairobi on Friday, March 14, 2003. source: CISA (For more information about Fr Kaiser's death use the ICN search engine to check for past stories.)