Even to those he baptized, to those who understood the nature of his vows, there remained something bewildering about the life he chose. In the far-flung Kenyan parishes he had served over 36 years, big families were a given, childlessness a calamity, and here was a man who would leave no offspring, no link to the earth walking upright when he left it. His legacy would be measured in other ways.
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and a pioneer of Kenya's pro-democracy movement, said Kaiser represented "the people's voice in an era when ordinary people did not have a voice."
His importance grew after his death, she said, when he became a byword for the Moi regime's ruthlessness. The ditch where Kaiser's body was found became not just a memorial site but a place where the opposition mobilized. In the long campaign to oust Moi's government, she said, "he became a very powerful symbol."
His battle on behalf of Sunkuli's accusers was another element of his legacy. In a country where rape went widely unpunished and the rights of poor women were scant, the fact that a powerful minister was summoned to court to answer the charges represented a crack in a culture of impunity, even if Sunkuli ultimately avoided prosecution.
There were other measures, and one could be found in a story Francis Kaiser told.
When he and his wife went to Kenya in September 2003 for the inquest, they attended a Mass in his brother's honor in Nyangusu, a western town where the priest had spent many years. Francis was asked to bless the crowd.
Afterward, a family brought their baby for him to hold, and the child was named John Kaiser. Francis learned that the church was full of young boys -- infants and toddlers and kids already running -- who had been named after his brother.
It was the same, he found, in village after village. There were hundreds across the countryside, maybe more.
His brother had disappeared into the red soil, perhaps along with the truth about his death, but you could travel anywhere now and find John Kaiser.
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christopher.goffard@latimes.com
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ABOUT THIS SERIES
Christopher Goffard began researching Father John Kaiser's life and death in late 2007. In Kenya, he visited areas where the missionary served and interviewed his friends, parishioners, church colleagues, Kenyan politicians, lawyers and others who knew him. Goffard talked to Kaiser's family members in California and Minnesota, as well as to FBI agents, U.S. diplomats and scholars. Kaiser's letters and other writings, filling nearly 500 pages, were a major source of information. Goffard also examined Kenyan police reports, court transcripts and news accounts and an FBI report on Kaiser's death.
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latimes.com
/kaiser
Excerpts of the FBI report and findings of a Kenyan inquest are at latimes.com/kaiser.
