It was chilling but the truth. A
catholic priest murdered a catholic Bishop.
A Kenyan Roman Catholic priest and four others
were sentenced to death Thursday by a court in Nairobi for murdering an elderly
Italian bishop almost a decade ago.
“Catholic priest Guyo Waqo and four
others have been sentenced to death for the murder of Isiolo Bishop Luigi
Locati,” Kenya’s Public Prosecutions office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the five men shot
and killed 77-year-old Bishop Luigi Locati in July 2005 after a row over cash
donated to the Isiolo diocese in central Kenya.
The popular Locati was slain at the
church compound in Isiolo, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of the
capital, in what prosecutors said was a power struggle for control of the
diocese and its cash ahead of the bishop’s retirement.
After an eight-year trial, Father
Waqo Guyo was named on Tuesday as the mastermind of the plot, having recruited
Mohammed Molu Bagajo, Aden Ibrahim Mohamed, Mahati Ali Halake, and Roba Balla
Bariche to carry out the killing.
Judge Fred Ochieng ruled the five
were “directly involved in the planning and killing of the bishop”.
However, it is unlikely the death
sentence will be carried out on the men, who all denied the murder and can
still appeal the ruling.
Kenya has not carried out executions
since 1987, although capital punishment is not formally abolished.
Locati, from the northern Italian
province of Vercelli, was ordained a priest in 1952 and came to Kenya 10 years
later. He set up the Isiolo diocese in 1963.
The murder outraged many Kenyans
with hundreds — including then President Mwai Kibaki — attending his funeral in
Isiolo.
A sixth man, Diga Wario, was
acquitted of the murder.
Catholic Priest sentenced to death for Murdering A Bishop
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Thursday, November 06, 2014
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