The FBI's verdict of suicide on Fr. John Kaiser was roundly rejected by Kenya's Catholics yesterday.

They said it left many questions unanswered and was conducted "unprofessionally".

Breaking its week-long silence since the United States agents released their report, the church's 26 bishops demanded a public inquest into the American priest's death.

They said the FBI report had caused concern by raising many questions but leaving them unanswered.

They asked why no ballistics report had been presented to back the report's finding. And they also pointed out that the report quoted a doctor who conducted a post-mortem examination as stating that he found bloody finger marks inside the priest's trouser pocket. Asked the bishops: "How did he get his hand in the pocket after blowing his head off?"

The body of the outspoken priest was found by the busy Naivasha-Nakuru highway last August 24 with a terrible gunshot wound to the head.

The FBI report, released on April 19, highlighted the behaviour of the priest shortly before his death as unusual; found no evidence of the involvement of other people at the place his body was found; could not account for the last three hours of his life; and noted that he had been treated for manic depression.

Attorney-General Amos Wako said yesterday he was still examining the detailed report.

Speaking in London, where he is on Government business until next Tuesday, Mr Wako said he had not yet finished reading the report and until he had done so and examined all its conclusions, he would not decide whether or not to order an inquest.

But Mr Wako also pointed out that the FBI report had been made public and that FBI agents had said they welcomed any detailed questions in connection with their report. "The main purpose of holding an inquest is to put into the public domain the circumstances surrounding a person's death," Mr Wako said. "In the case of the FBI report, however, that has already been done."

Mr Wako suggested that if the Catholic church or any other organisation had concerns about the findings, they should take them up with the FBI.

He said he would make a final decision about an inquest only when he had considered all its findings.

The Catholic's Kenya Episcopal Conference also appealed to the AG yesterday to ensure that all exhibits and evidence, including the priest's car, were preserved with care.

They made the statement a the end of a four-day meeting at the St Thomas Aquinas Seminary, in the city's Lang'ata area, where they discussed the report and other church and national issues.

Speaking on behalf of the conference, its chairman Bishop John Njue said: "The Catholic bishops have considered with expert advice the FBI's Final Report, on the death of Fr. Kaiser and wish to state that it cannot in law give final conclusions. It is reserved to a court."

Bishop Njue asked the AG to institute the inquest "where all witnesses can be examined and cross examined". 

The chief legal advisor to the Government was also asked to compile a file on the investigation and present it to the inquest; in addition to ensuring that all evidence with the FBI and the local Criminal Investigations Department of the Kenya police was handed over to the proposed independent court of inquiry.

Among the areas the bishops said the FBI report was inconclusive, was on "the unprofessional and selective" scene-of-crime evidence; the post-mortem; and on the priest's mental health. 

The bishops queried the blurred photographs used by the FBI in the report and asked why there was no explanation for the finger prints found on the car, but not on the gun beside the body.

The church also asked why the FBI report did not mention the blood found on the priest's pick-up and an axe found on the back seat.

Asked the bishops, in a signed Press statement, read by Bishop Njue: "Were all the witnesses interviewed? Who were interviewed and what certainty can be ascribed to their evidence?"

The church defended Fr. Kaiser over statements in the report that he had a history of mental disorder by claiming that was a diversionary move to strengthen the suicide finding.

The bishops also asked why despite that, the FBI report stated that Fr.0..... Kaiser had future plans: "According to psychiatrists, suicide is a result of feeling worthless or hopeless; this was not obviously the case with Fr. Kaiser," the bishops said.

They recalled that Fr. Kaiser's immediate superiors, his closest friends and family while accepting he was under great stress by being followed, harassed and threatened, did not consider he had suicidal tendencies and he himself expressly excluded the idea of suicide while expressly foreseeing his own murder.

The Church said that only fresh investigations will answer why the priest may have been mentally disturbed at the time of his death, which coincided with unexplained incidents which may have caused him stress. 

In the US, a senator said following an hour-long meeting with FBI investigators that he believed Fr. Kaiser was murdered. 

"I continue to dissent from the FBI report on the Catholic priest's death, declared Sen Paul Wellstone, who represents Fr Kaiser's native state of Minnesota. 

The FBI report had failed to take fully into account the substantive threats to Fr Kaiser's life, Sen Wellstone told reporters. Asked what he believed to be the likely cause of the priest's death, the senator replied, "I think he was murdered."

Sen Wellstone said he questioned the FBI agents regarding the possibility that evidence may have been altered or removed from the site where Fr Kaiser's body was discovered. 

According to the senator, the FBI team acknowledged that the integrity of the crime scene had been compromised by the time the bureau's agents arrived there. The priest's truck had been hauled away, for example, and Kenyan police had taken custody of his shotgun. 

The FBI officials told him, Sen Wellstone said, that Kenyan police officials had done a reasonably good job of safeguarding the site but did not follow all the procedures that would have been carried out in the United States. 

Sen Wellstone added that he plans to meet soon with Fr Kaisers family members to discuss the option of asking the United States attorney-general to undertake a formal review of the FBI report. 

Regardless of whether that avenue is taken, Sen Wellstone vowed that he will not let the matter rest.

Thursday's meeting with the FBI was arranged at Sen Wellstone's request. The Minnesota Democrat spoke with journalists shortly after the session via a conference call from his Washington office.