St. Louis News Blog

Ten years ago this month, an American-born priest named John Kaiser traveled from his parish in Lolgorien, Kenya, to Nairobi, the capitol, to testify before the Akiwumi Commission, a tribunal established by then-President Daniel arap Moi to investigate the causes of the tribal violence that was tearing the nation apart.

Kaiser's testimony implicated several Kenyan government officials, including Moi. A year and a half later, Kaiser's body was discovered in a ditch beside a major highway. The back of his head had been blown off.

If this story sounds familiar, it's because I told it in an October 2007 cover story, "The Death of Father Kaiser."

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times began a three-part series about Kaiser's extraordinary life and death. Unlike myself, the writer, Christopher Goffard, got to go to Kenya to do his reporting. It's definitely worth a look.