John Anthony Kaiser

John Anthony Kaiser (November 29, 1932 - August 23, 2000) was a Roman Catholic priest who was murdered in Morendat, Kenya by unknown assailants.

Early life

John Anthony Kaiser was born in Perham, Minnesota.cite news
last = Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota
title = Minnesota priest, Father John Kaiser, Murdered in Kenya
date = August, 2000
url = http://www.parish-without-borders.net/global/kenya1.htm
accessdate = 2007-03-04] John attended [http://www.sjprep.net Saint John’s Preparatory School] , and the St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota for two years [cite web
author = St. John's University Peace Studies Department
title = Peace Studies Conference Fall 2001
url = http://www.csbsju.edu/peacestudies/conferences/fall2001.htm
accessdate = 2007-03-04] before he joined the army in 1954.cite news
last = Mbitiru
first = Chigi
title = American priest's death shocks Kenya
publisher = Associated Press
url = http://www.seacoastonline.com/2000news/8_25_w1.htm
date = August 25, 2000
accessdate = 2007-03-04] He was a paratrooper,cite news
last = Harding
first = Andrew
title = Death of a Priest
publisher = BBC News
date = February 23, 2001
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/1184425.txt
accessdate = 2006-07-02] and advanced to the rank of Sergeant.cite news
title = The Final FBI Report on the Death of Father John Kaiser
publisher = The East African
date = May 7, 2001
url = http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/20052001/Features/Features.html
accessdate = 2006-09-08] He graduated from Saint Louis University in 1960, with a BA in English Literature. [Some sources say theology.] While in St. Louis, he joined the Knights of Columbus. From here, he went to St. Joseph Seminary in Mill Hill, England, where he studied from 1960 to 1964.cite news
last = Wellstone
first = Hon. Paul
title = Speech on the floor of the United States Senate introducing S Con Res 146
work = Congressional Record
pages = S10093
date = October 6, 2000
url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/R?r106:FLD001:S60093
accessdate = 2006-07-02] Fr. Kaiser was ordained in St. Louis for the Mill Hill Fathers in 1964, and was sent to their missions in Kenya.

Maela refugee camp

John spent 20 years in the missions in the Kisii Diocese." [cite news
last = Zenit News Agency
title = World Features
date = August 27, 2000
url = http://www.zenit.org/english/archive/0008/ZE000827.html
accessdate = 2007-02-11] Over that time, the Catholic population had doubled, so that 48 priests were ministering to more than half a million Catholics in the diocese, [cite web
title = Diocese of Kisii
work = The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
url = http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dkisi.html
accessdate = 2007-02-04] many living in grinding poverty. In 1993, he was reassigned to the Maela refugee camp in the Ngong Diocese.cite news
last = Law Society of Kenya
title = Statement in Support of the Award for Distinguished Service in the Promotion of Human Rights to Father John Anthony Kaiser for the Year 2000
date = March 11, 2000
url = http://www.parish-without-borders.net/global/kenya1.htm
accessdate = 2006-07-02] Refugees fled to the camp as a result of tribal violence, armed gangs driving them from their homes, and then torching the buildings. Kaiser and others thought the government was fomenting the violence as part of a land grab. [cite news
title = "News Briefs"
url = http://www.americamagazine.org/catholicnews.cfm?articleTypeID=29&textID=2460&issueID=400
publisher = America, The National Catholic Weekly
date = September 9, 2002
accessdate = 2007-01-28] Amid international attention, on Christmas Eve, 1994, the camp was closed and the refugees were forcibly resettled.cite book
last = Human Rights Watch
title = Failing the Internally Displaced: The UNDP Displaced Persons Program in Kenya
url = http://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/kenya2/
date = June 1997
accessdate = 2007-01-21] Kaiser protested the closing, but he was arrested,cite book
last = Kaiser
first = John Anthony
title = If I Die
location = Corby, England, UK
publisher = [http://www.canapublishinguk.com/ Cana Publishing UK]
date = 2003] beaten, [cite news
last = England
first = Andrew
title = "Minnesotan sought social justice"
url = http://www.parish-without-borders.net/global/kenya1.htm
publisher = Associated Press
accessdate = 2007-01-14] and released into the dangerous bush.cite news
last = Mahoney
first = Carolita
title = Letter to friends
date = September 10, 2000
url = http://www.gobrainstorm.net/~johnnyd/kaiser/carolita.htm
accessdate = 2006-08-11] Following these events, Kaiser was reassigned to preach to the more distant Maasai at Lolgorian Parish. [cite news
last = Society of St. Joseph (Mill Hill)
title = Mission Today: Mill Hill Newsround
date = Autumn, 2001
url = http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:8RZeV7QSbU8J:www.missionsocieties.org.uk/MTOD/Aut01/MTOD_aut01_%2520newsround.htm+kaiser+lolgorian+davis&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=12
accessdate = 2007-01-07]

In 1998, at great personal risk, Fr. Kaiser testified before the Akiwumi Commission, [cite news
title = Profile of Internal Displacement: Kenya
last = Norwegian Refugee Council
date = November 30, 2004
url = http://www.unhcr.org/home/RSDCOI/3ae6a62c0.pdf
accessdate = 2007-01-02] investigating the causes of the violence and the closing of the camp. [cite news
title = Playing with Fire: Weapons Proliferation, Political Violence, and Human Rights in Kenya
publisher = Human Rights Watch
date = May, 2002
url = http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/kenya/Kenya0502.pdf
accessdate = 2006-12-29] In public, sworn testimony, Kaiser fingered prominent cabinet ministers in the incumbent government, as well as the then-President, Daniel arap Moi. [cite news
title = Fr Kaiser: A defender of clash victims
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = November 1, 1999] His testimony was quashed. The report of the commission was released on October 18, 2002. It confirmed the charges made by Fr. Kaiser, "indicted ... senior officials" and "accused senior officials of giving inflammatory speeches and in some cases, financing persons responsible for the violence." [cite news
title = Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kenya, 2002
last = Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
publisher = United States Department of State
date = March 31, 2003
url = http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18209.htm
accessdate = 2006-12-29]

He had also helped two schoolgirls in summer 1999. The girls claimed they had been raped by Julius Sunkuli, a cabinet minister in the Moi government. [cite news
title = Sunkuli defended by wife
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = September 18, 2000] Sunkuli is alleged to have offered money for an abortion, but the girl, a fourteen year old named Florence, decided to keep her baby. Kaiser put the girls in touch with the Kenyan Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA-Kenya. The attorneys submitted the evidence to the government, [cite news
last = Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
publisher = United States Department of State
title = Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Kenya, 2000
date = February 23, 2001
url = http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/841.htm
accessdate = 2006-11-19] but Sunkuli was never charged. [cite news
last = Thuku
first = Wahome
title = Sunkuli Case Goes to CJ
publisher The Nation (Kenya)
date = September 19, 2000] Instead, police stormed the building where the girls were hiding.

Troubles with the Kenyan government

In November, 1999, the Kenyan government tried to deport Fr. Kaiser, claiming that his work permit had expired. Kaiser briefly went into hiding in Kisii [cite news
last = Sekoh-Ochieng
first = Jacinta
title = Fr Kaiser took refuge in Kisii - bishop
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = November 3, 1999] before he was granted a new work permit, but only after intervention by the US Ambassador Johnnie Carson and Bishop Colin Davis of Ngong. [cite news
title = US Priest Allowed To Stay In Kenya
publisher = Catholic World News
date = November 3, 1999
url = http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=11459
accessdate = 2006-10-27]

In March, 2000, the independent Law Society of Kenya presented Fr. Kaiser with its annual Human Rights Award, for his public testimony before the Akiwumi Commission and his support of the two girls. They called him "a study in courage, determination and sacrifice on behalf of the weak, oppressed and downtrodden."

Fr. Kaiser knew of the dangers of speaking out in Kenya, and of a fate which had captured many others. In a book about his experiences at the Maela camp, he wrote a warning. cquote|“I want all to know that if I disappear from the scene, because the bush is vast and hyenas many, that I am not planning any accident, nor, God forbid, any self destruction. Instead, I trust in a good guardian angel and in the action of grace.”|30px|30px|"If I Die," John Kaiser|

Death and aftermath

On August 23, 2000, Fr. Kaiser was shot in the back of the head with a shotgun, which was nearby. [cite news
last = Mwangi
first = George
title = American Priest Found Dead in Kenya
publisher = Associated Press
date = August 24, 2000
url = http://www.johnkaiser.net/apmwangi824.htm
accessdate = 2006-07-02] His body was found at 6 am the next day beneath two acacia trees, [cite news
title = Sleuths at Kaiser murder scene
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = November 2, 2000
url = http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/02112000/News/News27.html
accessdate = 2006-09-23] by a butcher named George [cite news
last = Harding
first = Andrew
title = Death of a Priest
publisher = BBC News Online
date = February 23, 2001
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/1184425.stm
accessdate = 2006-09-16] at Morendat junction on the Nakuru-Naivasha road in western Kenya. [cite news
last = Kazungu
first = Nyabonyi
title = Kenya: Bring Kaiser's Killers to Book, Clerics Demand
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = August 28, 2006
url = http://allafrica.com/stories/200608281740.html
accessdate = 2006-09-23] He was carrying documents he intended to present to the Akiwumi Commission.cite news
title = S. Con. Res. 146
publisher = [http://thomas.loc.gov 106th United States Congress, 2nd session]
date = agreed to October 24, 2000] He was also to testify against the Moi government before the International Criminal Court in the Hague in three weeks. [cite news
last = Stahl
first = Brandon
title = Kaiser honored by Kenyan government
publisher = Fergus Falls [Minnesota, USA] Daily Journal
date = March 1, 2006] The first police officers on the scene thought he had been murdered. [cite news
last = Muiruri
first = Stephen
coauthors = Michael Njuguna
title = A last prayer, then Fr Kaiser is killed
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = August 25, 2000] [cite news
last = Tomlinson
first = Chris
title = American priest's killing incites Kenyan opposition
publisher = Associated Press
date = September 10, 2000
url = http://www.parish-without-borders.net/global/kenya1.htm
accessdate = 2006-09-03]

Less than a week after Fr. Kaiser's death, Florence Mpayei dropped her rape case against Julius Sunkuli. [cite news
title = Kenyan girl withdraws minister rape case
publisher = BBC News
date = August 31, 2000
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/855098.stm
accessdate = 2006-10-28]

Kenya's chief government pathologist and a pathologist from an independent human rights organization present at the autopsy thought Father Kaiser was killed from a muzzle distance of about convert|3|ft|m, from which suicide would be impossible. [cite news
title = Was It Accidental, Homicide, Or a Case of Suicide?
publisher = The East African
date = May 14, 2001
url = http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/21052001/Features/Features.html
accessdate = 2006-08-26] However, an FBI expert from Texas, who did not examine Fr. Kaiser but only saw photographs, concluded that Kaiser had committed suicide. [cite news
publisher = Catholic World News
title = FBI Releases Report On Death Of US Missionary In Kenya
date = April 19, 2001
url = http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=15327
accessdate = 2006-08-20] The Moi government readily agreed. [cite news
last = Nzia
first = Daniel
title = "Madoka supports FBI report on Kaiser death,
publisher = The Financial Standard (Kenya)
date = May 7, 2001]

Both houses of the United States Congress passed a joint resolution calling Fr. Kaiser’s death "an assassination," and calling for the US State Department to investigate.

The papal nuncio, the Most Rev. Giovanni Tonucci, said at Father Kaiser’s funeral in the Nairobi basillica, "The church, through pitiless violence, has once more been deprived of one of her ministers. Let no one have any doubts about it: we are celebrating a religious occasion; we are reflecting on a religious assassination, not a political one. Fr. Kaiser has been murdered because he was, and in the eternity of God still is, a Catholic priest who preached the Gospel. Those who killed him, those who planned his killing, wanted to silence the voice of the Gospel.... [cite news
last = Quinn
first = Frederick
title = John Kaiser
publisher = Dictionary of African Christian Biography
url = http://www.dacb.org/stories/kenya/kaiser_john.html
accessdate = 2006-07-02] Only two days before his death, I met Fr. Kaiser for a long conversation. At the end, he asked my blessing, which I reluctantly gave him. At that moment, I thought it would have been better if he, an old and worthy missionary, had blessed me. How much more I am convinced of that now that we look at him as a martyr of the faith?". Also present at the altar was His Eminence Maurice Cardinal Otunga, Archbishop Emeritus of Nairobi.

The Law Society of Kenya renamed its annual award the Fr. Kaiser Human Rights Award. [cite news
title = Missionary priest receives award from Law Society of Kenya
publisher = Christian Today
date = March 26, 2004
url = http://www.christiantoday.com/news/africa/missionary.priest.receives.award.from.law.society.of.kenya/56.htm
accessdate = 2006-07-02] A new Kenyan government was elected in 2002. Since then, the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission posthumously honored Fr. Kaiser with its 2006 Milele (Lifetime) Achievement Award. [cite press release
publisher = [http://www.knchr.com/ Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights]
title = Citation for 2006 Milele (Lifetime Achievement) Award to Fr. John Anthony Kaiser
date = February 18, 2006] Fr. Kaiser also posthumously received the Twin Cities International Citizen Award from the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in 2000, [cite news
title = List of Recipients of the International Citizen Award
url = http://www.tcglobal.org/PastRecipiants.htm
accessdate = 2006-08-01] and the Lumen Gentium Award from St. John's Preparatory School in 2004. [cite news
last = Travis
first = Fr. Gordon, OSB
title = Speech at the Legacy Dinner
date = November 11, 2004
url = http://www.sjprep.net/alumni/Legacy/Legacy%20Dinner%202004/Fr.%20Gordon's%20Speech%202004.htm
accessdate = 2006-07-18]

The news program 60 Minutes conducted an investigation into the death of Fr. Kaiser, which put pressure on the international community to solve the mystery of how he died. The Kenyan government reopened the inquest into Fr. Kaiser’s death at the request of the Kenyan Episcopal Conference. [cite news
title = Bishops to pursue Kaiser case
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
date = August 24, 2003
aceessdate = 2006-07-17] The inquest ended on June 12, 2007, after hearing from 111 witnesses. [cite news
last = Njuguna
first = Francis
publisher = Independent Catholic News
title = Kenya: Fr Kaiser inquest winds up
date = June 12, 2007
url = http://www.indcatholicnews.com/kaiserinq218.html
accessdate = 2007-05-14] The presiding magistrate, Maureen Odero, said on August 1, 2007 that Kaiser was murdered, ruled that the "Suicide Theory" was based on a pre-conceived notion, but stated that "she could not — on the basis of evidence tabled before her in the inquest — point out with certainty who the priest’s killers were". [cite news
last = Agutu
first = Mark
publisher = The Nation (Kenya)
title = It was murder, Kaiser probe rules
date = August 2, 2007
url = http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&newsid=103606
accessdate = 2007-08-02]

References

External links

* http://www.johnkaiser.net/
* http://johnkaiser.blogspot.com/
* http://www.kofc1376.org/kaiser.htm
* [http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2007-10-24/news/the-death-of-father-kaiser/full St. Louis Riverfront Times examines death of Father Kaiser]
* [http://barniclefarms.homestead.com/ne1_3_THE_JOURNEY.doc Tony Barnicle writes about his time in Seminary with Father Kaiser]
* [http://media.www.unewsonline.com/media/storage/paper953/news/2007/08/24/News/Slu-Alumnus.Death.Is.Ruled.A.Murder-2936640.shtml Article] and [http://media.www.unewsonline.com/media/storage/paper953/news/2007/08/24/Editorials/Murdered.Missionary-2936647.shtml Editorial] from the Saint Louis University News, Fr. Kaiser's alma mater, reporting his murder.