Kenya: Church marks 25th anniversary of killing of Fr John Kaiser

Fr John Kaiser

Source: ACIAfrica

A special Mass was offered at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Lolgorian, Catholic Diocese of Ngong in Kenya, on Friday, to commemorate American Mill Hill Missionary, Fr John Anthony Kaiser who was killed on 22 August 2000.

In his homily, Bishop Salesius Mugambi of the Catholic Diocese of Meru remembered the day that Fr Kaiser was found dead, and called the congregation to continue praying for Fr Kaiser's family.

Recalling the events of the morning of 23 August 2000, Bishop Mugambi said: "I was teaching in Molo (in the current Nakuru Catholic Diocese), and I remember I was on my way to Nairobi when I saw a few people very early in the morning standing by the roadside, looking. I too went to look, and not identifying the body, I blessed the man and continued with my journey."

He added, "It was only after I arrived in Nairobi that I received the horrifying news of the murder of Father Kaiser."

Fr Kaiser's body was found lying next to a shotgun with a wound on his head on the fateful morning along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway.

The MHM Priest was known for working with the vulnerable and the oppressed in Kenya. He was vocal and bold against the forced evictions of Kenyans from their ancestral land. He was a critic of President Daniel Moi's administration, and once testified before a commission, accusing the government of fuelling the 1991-1993 ethnic violence in Kenya's Rift Valley Province.

Just five months earlier, Fr Kaiser had been given the Law Society of Kenya annual Human Rights Award for demonstrating courage, determination, and sacrifice on behalf of the weak, oppressed, and downtrodden.

Fr. Kaiser was born on 23 November 1932. He was ordained a MHM Priest in 1964 and commissioned to Kenya. He worked in the Dioceses of Kisii and Nakuru before proceeding to Ngong.

In his 22 homily, Bishop Mugambi expressed gratitude to God for the gift of Fr Kaiser saying, "We remember our beloved Priest. He lived and he taught, after teaching, he acted."

Urging those in leadership to work for justice and peace, the Kenyan Catholic Bishop said: "Sometimes it is easy to teach and to talk. It is easy to even write books. It is easy to write even in a newspaper. But if we do not act and use the Holy Spirit given to us by God, going out to point out issues that threaten peace, then it all amounts to nothing."

"On the last day when we die, God will ask us what we did with the gifts He gave us, to preach peace in the world. He will remind us that we only listened, saw, felt pity, yet failed to act," the Bishop said.

Thanking God for the life example of Fr Kaiser, Bishop Mugambi prayed for the people of God in Kenya "to have the courage to see, to judge and to act."

"For all of us here, friends of Fr Kaiser, we pray to be instruments of God. That God uses us for justice to be served in the world," the 74-year-old Kenyan Catholic Bishop said.