"I had no role"

I Had No Role in Kaiser's Death, Says CID Officer

The Nation (Nairobi)

January 24, 2006

Nairobi -- A senior CID officer yesterday denied having a role in the disappearance and death of Catholic priest John Anthony Kaiser.

Acting superintendent of police Julius Kikwai ole Sunkuli expressed shock at the allegation that witnesses had linked him to the killing.

"I am really shocked to hear that," said Mr Kikwai, a cousin of former Cabinet minister Julius ole Sunkuli.

"It's a lie; I have never been associated with the matter at all."

The officer said he was in his house at Langata estate in Nairobi with his family on the night of August 23/24, 2000 when the priest was found dead near Naivasha.

Fr Kaiser's body was found at the Morendant junction, on the Nakuru-Naivasha road, with his head blown off.

His firearm lay by the body.

At the time of his death, he was the priest in charge of the Lolgorian parish of the Ngong Catholic diocese.

Mr Kikwai was at that time the deputy CID boss of Embakasi, Nairobi.

He has since been transferred to Trans-Nzoia District to take charge of a division.

The officer was answering questions from state counsel James Mungai and lawyer Mbuthi Gathenji, for the Catholic church, during the hearing of the death inquest by Nairobi magistrate Maureen Odero.

Mr Gathenji told the officer that a witness had linked him to a plot to murder the priest.

But Mr Kikwai said he was nowhere near Ngong where the priest was based, or Naivasha where his body was found.

He also denied knowledge of the involvement of police, especially the flying squad, in the plot as claimed by Mr Gathenji.

The CID officer said he had also recorded a statement with American agents, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who had joined Kenyan police in investigating the killing.

He was not aware that he had been implicated in the priest's death, he said.