Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) – The Catholic Church will mark the 10th anniversary of Mill Hill Missionary Father John Anthony Kaiser, murdered in Kenya for defending the rights of the poor.
A memorial service will be held on August 19, 2010 at 10.00am at the Holy Family Minor Basilica in Nairobi. The Mass will be preceeded by a procession led by Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop of Nairobi, which will also be attended by various Bishops and family of Fr. Kaiser.
A second Mass will be held at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Naivasha on August 22, at 10.00am, and a third mass will be held at the Lolgorian Parish in the Ngong Diocese where he served, also at the same time.
This will be followed by a symposium on September 2nd and 3rd from 8.00am to 5.00pm at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi.
According to Sr Nuala Brangan, Coordinator of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya –Justice and Peace Commission (AOSK-JPC), the commemoration ceremony will highlight the condition of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
"We also hope to tackle the issue of impunity as there are still so many unsolved murder cases and victims of torture and take this opportunity to also highlight issues that will pave the way to a good, democratic and peaceful country," Sr. Brangan said.
Fr. Kaiser was vocal about the ethnic evictions in the Rift Valley that finally cost him his life. He was a critic of former President Daniel Moi’s regime and came into the national limelight in the 90s when he vigorously resisted the eviction of the internally displaced people who camped at Maela in Narok, following their eviction from Enoosupukia.
The number of people displaced from the Rift Valley between 1986 and 1995, according to Fr. Kaiser, were one million.
Fr. Kaiser, who had worked in Kenya for 36 years, was found by the roadside in Naivasha, some 90 kilometers (about 55 miles) northwest of Nairobi, with a bullet through the head on August 24, 2000.
The Church in Kenya has rejected the findings of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) that stated that the missionary had committed suicide.
The Catholic Church in Kenya still hopes the truth about who killed the missionary will come to light one day. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 18/8/2010)
