21 April 2001
Nairobi, Kenya — An FBI report released in Nairobi last Thursday ruling out foul play in the death in Kenya last year of a Catholic priest has been received with shock, disbelief and anger.
Father John Anthony Kaiser's body with a bullet wound in the head was found on 24 August last year under a tree near Naivasha, about 100km west of Nairobi.
It was widely believed that his enemies in the government had murdered the controversial priest, who had lived in Kenya for 35 years.
He had been very critical of the government over what he termed abuse of human rights among the minority communities. Accusing fingers had been pointed at cabinet minister Julius ole Sunkuli, who was known to be the priest's archenemy.
Father Kaiser had been following a case against the minister over the rape and impregnation of a teenage girl in Maasa Island, his area.
But the American criminal investigation outfit said there was no evidence that the priest could not have been murdered, and concluded that he had committed suicide.
The FBI noted that the Kaiser family had a history of manic depression.
Releasing the report at a high-profile press conference at the US embassy in Nairobi, FBI team head Thomas Carey said "it is the opinion of the behavioural analysis unit (BAU) that the manner of death of Father John Anthony Kaiser is most consistent with suicide resulting from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."
But, in press reports on Friday and Saturday, the verdict was dismissed as glossing over the true cause of Father Kaiser's death, with the Catholic Church saying the verdict was hard to believe.
Bishop Collins Davies of the Ngong diocese, in which the slain priest served, described the verdict as said "a cheap way of getting out of a problem."
Kenya's Catholic bishops have vowed to hold a meeting next week to discuss the report.
Fr Kaiser's sister, Carolita Mahoney, said the Kenyan CID in the investigations had unwittingly used the FBI.
"Evidence could easily have been withheld or sanitised in the time between his death and the arrival of the FBI agents several days later," she said.
Mahoney of Underwood, Minnesota, insisted her brother was murdered and that the Kenyan authorities covered up his killing. "Its not over yet. The battle to establish the truth will continue," she vowed.
The vice-chairman of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), Mirugi Kariuki, said the report "has no credibility and cannot be believed."
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