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KENYA
US missionary killed
Had opposed government ministers
A US priest who had been a vocal critic of the Kenyan government was found shot dead on August 24, just days after telling associates he feared for his life.
Father John Kaiser, 68, a Mill Hill Missionary originally from Minnesota, was found dead, with a single bullet wound to his head, outside of the town of Naivasha, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the capital Nairobi. Father Kaiser had accused two government ministers of orchestrating tribal fighting and was then ordered to leave the country last year. The decision was later revoked after protests.
Opposition MP Paul Muite said Father Kaiser had spoken of threats made against him by political enemies when the two men met last month. “In his discussions with me, Kaiser expressed fears for his life and named certain people,” he said. “I have no doubts at all that Father Kaiser’s death is a political assassination.”
Father Cornelius Schilder, the priest’s immediate supervisor, said Father Kaiser appeared tense and restless on the day of his death. He had agreed to stay with friends that night but changed his mind. He then spoke of his fears to Father Francis Mwangi before going to bed, and when Father Mwangi came to find him about 7 pm, the missionary had disappeared.
The motive of the killing has remained unclear, with the police saying that the killers had tried to arrange the scene to suggest suicide.
Responding to the brutal murder of the priest, the Kenyan chapter of the Human Rights Network said the root cause of the death must be established, as it amounted to the violation of the rights of many Kenyans. “Who in Kenya would want to kill Father Kaiser, and why now? They could be people well connected in the government who saw him as a moral thorn in their evil flesh,” said the group.
The killer used a rifle of the type issued to police and Wilderness Service personnel and shot Father Kaiser with one bullet to his head.
The priest had caused anxiety among Christians when he disappeared to avoid deportation last year after his residency permit expired and the government showed reluctance in renewing it after 36 years of service.
He had also testified on a commission appointed by the president to find the cause and motive of tribal clashes that rocked the country between 1991 and 1994. He had exposed powerful government officials as key players in the clashes that killed hundreds and displaced thousands in the country.
“He defended the rights of women by standing up to mighty rapists, and stood with the peasants threatened by well-connected land grabbers,” said the Human Rights Network.
Last November, Father Kaiser predicted his enemies would continue to hound him. “I thank the press for playing a big role in helping avert my deportation, but I know my enemies would still want to finish me. What they will never finish is my soul,” the priest told reporters. He added, “Nobody will frighten me out of my priestly obligation of condemning injustice and evil; even if it means being persecuted by those who thrive on earthly powers.”
Thousands of people gathered on August 30 for Father Kaiser’s funeral, which was also attended by high-ranking church and government leaders who praised the priest for his service.
“I have never seen anything like this before. It’s a dreadful tragedy, but John’s martyrdom will far outweigh his murder,” said Carolita Mahoney, Father Kaiser’s sister. “Everything that was said today by the speakers expressed everything I knew and heard about John. The love John had for Kenyans was obviously matched by the Kenyans’ love of him,” she told The Associated Press after the service, her voice breaking with emotion.
In the packed cathedral, some 2,000 people were seated and another 1,000 were crammed into the aisles. Letters of condolence were read out from Pope John Paul II and the US ambassador, Johnnie Carson. Carson promised that the US government would work to find, punish, and prosecute the persons responsible for the crime. Four FBI agents were sent to Kenya to assist in the investigation.
Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, the papal nuncio in Kenya, said Father Kaiser was the third missionary to be killed in the East African nation in the last four years. “They have many things in common. They made themselves Kenyans to win the Kenyans, they had made themselves weak to win the weak . . . . Their lives had been offered in sacrifice,” Archbishop Tonucci said. “In recent days he probably felt that he was in danger; he understood his violent death was approaching. He could have gone, but he chose to remain in his place to fulfill his mission and to complete the gift of himself.”
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