Inquest into killing of Franciscan is refused

Kenya's Attorney General has refused a request from lawyers for the Irish missionary, Brother Larry Timmons, for an inquest into the circumstances of his killing. The trial of the policeman accused of murdering Brother Timmons is due to open later this week in Nakuru, four hours north of Nairobi. The dead Franciscan's lawyers, however, fear it will turn into a "public relations exercise" by the Kenyan government.

They say the likely result of a trial will be the acquittal of the policeman and a declaration by the government that Brother Timmons's death was a "regrettable accident".

"There does not appear to be a serious intention to go deep into the circumstances leading to the death of the brother," they wrote in a letter to the Franciscans last week.

Brother Timmons was shot in mysterious circumstances after robbers broke into his home in Lare, near Nakuru. The accused policeman, Mr Francis Kimanzi, was one of four prominent local figures whom Brother Timmons had accused of corruption.

According to Brother James Mungovan, provincial of the Franciscans in Ireland, an inquest offers the best opportunity to ask questions and to deal with the issues involved in Brother Timmons's killing.

The view of the Kenyan Attorney General is that the request for an inquest has been superseded by the decision to go ahead with a trial. "The context of his death is more important than the actual person who fired the shot. We're not interested in making a martyr of anyone; we just want to get to the bottom of what happened," Brother Mungovan said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs, which has been monitoring the case, is trying to establish if there is a precedent for postponing a trial until an inquest has been held.

In a similar case a few years ago, involving the killing of two power workers by a local policeman in Eldoret, the Attorney General reversed his original decision not to permit an inquest, but only after intense legal and political pressure.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International criticised Kenya for its human rights record, and singled out the police force for particular criticism. In its report, Amnesty documented cases of police torture, deaths in custody and beatings.

The number of tourists coming to Kenya's beaches has dropped by half since violence flared there in the past few weeks.