Kenyan police have detained four more people for questioning over the murder of a Catholic missionary in the east African country, a police spokesperson said Tuesday.

"We have so far received very important information that I am confident will sustain a strong case against the suspects," said Robert Kitur, assistant commissioner of police, according to Reuters.

On Friday, police arrested two men in connection with the murder of Italian Bishop Luigi Locati last week. According to the Rev. Julien Kabore, the 76-year-old bishop was fatally wounded Thursday evening as he was walking to a pastoral centre in Isiolo, in the country's north, where he was based.

"We are assessing the case to see whether [the four] took part in inciting, influencing, issuing inflammatory statements or supported the killings," Kitur said.

According to Agence-France Presse, police have suggested several possible motives for the murder, ranging from ties to deadly inter-clan violence to robbery to internal rifts within the church community in Isiolo.

"We are currently looking at the possibility that there were wrangles in his church," Kitur told AFP.

Some have questioned whether Locati’s death was linked with the recent clan violence in the Marsabit district near the Ethiopian border in which more than 75 people, many of them children, were killed. However, Kabore told the Associated Press that he didn't think it was linked to recent clashes.

"For now we don't think it is linked," he said. "But it is not known."

Meanwhile, relatives of the slain missionary have arrived in the east African country for the Locati’s burial Wednesday. The funeral is expected to be attended by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and hundreds of faithful.





Anthony La Fleur