Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Nairobi (Fides News Agency) – Kenyan police arrested the main suspect in the murder of Father Allois Cheruiyot Bett on June 10. The priest was shot dead in the Tot area of the Kerio Valley, in the western plateau of Kenya (see Fides, 23/5/2025). The suspect, Meshack Kilimo, was arrested after he killed another man with an arrow during a land dispute in the same area of the Kerio Valley.
Zablon Okoyo, police chief of Kerio Valley East district, confirmed the arrest of the main suspect in the priest's murder case and stated that he is currently being questioned.
Meshack Kilimo was brought before a judge in the town of Iteh in connection with the land dispute.
"The Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating the case and trying to establish a link to the priest. A decision will then be made on the appropriate measures," the police chief said.
Father Bett was shot dead by gunmen on May 22, 2025, after celebrating Mass in the Jumuiya (small Christian community) of the village of Kakbiken.
On June 3, the bodies of two men, whose deaths were linked to the priest's murder, were found on the road between Mogotio and Kiptuno in the Nakuru district (see Fides, 4/6/2025).
Their families, who reported them missing on May 30, claim their killings are connected to the priest's murder. According to family members, the two men, Simon Yego, 45, and Collins Kipyatich, 22, were abducted within hours of each other that morning in the village of Tot, where Father Bett was also killed on May 22.
The autopsy confirmed that both victims had been brutally tortured before their deaths. At the time, some sources reported the possible involvement of "men in uniform" or members of the security forces in the abduction. The deaths of the two men add another unsolved element to the murder of the priest in a region already plagued by high tensions due to the presence of criminal gangs (see Fides, 27/5/2025). (L.M.) (Fides News Agency, 12/6/2026)
