Pressure on Kenya killing witnesses claimed

KENYAN authorities are interfering with key witnesses to the murder of Brother Larry Timmons, the most senior figure in the Catholic Church here has claimed.

The Archbishop of Nairobi, Dr Raphael Ndingi, said people who had made statements implicating an Administration Policeman (AP) in the murder were being pressurised into withdrawing them.

Brother Timmons, a Franciscan from Delvin, Co Westmeath, was shot by police who came to investigate a robbery at his home in Lare, 200 miles north west of Nairobi, two weeks ago. He was killed shortly after making corruption allegations against a number of local officials, including the AP who has been charged with his murder.

Archbishop Ndingi said yesterday he doubted if justice would be served in this case. He asked why "the authorities had not arrested "the second AP, whom he described as an accomplice, who came to Brother Timmons's house, on the night of the robbery.

"After the shooting, one of them is said to have shouted our promotion is assured. Then they disappeared. They didn't even accompany the body to the hospital," he said.

"And when Brother Timmons was brought to the hospital, an hour away, the police were there. How could they have known? It must have been prearranged." He vowed that the campaign begun by Brother Timmons would be carried on by the church.

Irish consular officials have yet to meet Kenyan officials in the Foreign Affairs Ministry about the case. A meeting was supposed to have taken place last week but Dutch diplomats, who are involved because the Netherlands currently hold the EU Presidency, asked for more time to brief themselves. The parties are due to meet within the next few days, according to the honorary Irish Consul "in Nairobi, Mr Joe O'Brien. The Irish embassy in Kenya was closed in the 1980s in a round of Government cutbacks.

According to Mr Maina Kiai, director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the onus is on the Irish Government and the EU to put pressure on the Kenyan authorities to ensure the case is properly investigated.

Mr Kiai says "shoot to kill" incidents involving the police are relatively common. Two years ago, two electricity supply company workers were shot by police. Although arrests were made, the cases did not come to court.

Brother Timmons's murder continues to cause concern in the Irish community in Kenya. A Nairobi based Jesuit, Father John Guiney, called on the Irish Government and the EU to "use their economic clout" to get improvements in human rights.

Father Guiney said that the killing of a single Irish cleric was "as nothing" to the human rights abuses in Kenya, where, he said, many people were "rotting" in jail. In the Rift Valley province, where Brother Timmons worked, the government was trying to clear opposition groups from the land.

"The EU has just arranged a £200 million financing deal for Kenya. We should not be subsidising this country at a time when its government is engaged in low level warfare against some of the tribal groups here."

It has also emerged that the District Commissioner for Nakuru, Mr John Abduba, has been transferred to a smaller district. The Catholic diocese in Nakuru, in which Lare is situated, has criticised Mr Abduba after he claimed Brother Timmons was killed "in cross fire" during "a simple robbery".