Nairobi, Kenya - An Italian Roman Catholic bishop was killed in an overnight attack in central Kenya, police and church officials said, as authorities investigated whether it was linked to a grisly cycle of inter-clan violence in the volatile north.
Bishop Luigi Locati of the Isiolo diocese, about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Nairobi, was shot in the head and neck late Thursday and died shortly before he was airlifted out, Robert Kipkemoi Kitur, the assistant commissioner of police in Kenya's Eastern Province told AFP.
Police said in a statement that the bishop, who came to Kenya in 1962, was attacked at around 7:50 pm by six armed men, who also injured a watchmen who was escorting him from supper in the diocese compound.
"We recovered 18 rounds of munition and a spent cartridge and we believe AK-47 and G3 rifles were involved." A G3 assault rifle is the official gun of the Kenyan police, Kitur said.
"Nothing was stolen from the bishop," who is a respected humanitariain in northern Kenya, where he was involved in several development projects, the statement added.
According to the diocesan spokesman, Father Michael Okiyo, the bishop was gunned down after a struggle with four heavily-armed gunmen.
"There was struggle and shootings as they were pursuing him," said Okiyo.
"He was one of the very good bishops we have ever had in Kenya (...) I can't imagine he had a problem with anybody here, so I think the people who attacked him might have been from somewhere else," the spokesman added.
The 77-year-old prelate, who had been ordained in 1952, came to Kenya in 1996 as the Bishop of Isiolo Apostolic Vicariate.
Police said the motive of the murder was still unknown, but speculated it could be linked to violence between members of the rival Borana and Gabra clans that has claimed at least 62 lives this week in the north-eastern region -- some 500 kilometers north of where the murder took place.
"We are investigating the motive of the attack but we suspect it is linked with the conflict between the Gabra and Borana because Catholic priests have been involved in helping people" in the clashes, Kitur added.
Police said they had arrested two watchmen who were guarding the church's compound, when the shooting occured, to probe if they had been hired.
"We are trying to find out whether they were hired by the people who killed the bishop," Kitur told AFP from the church's compound.
On Tuesday, members of the Borana clan raided a Gabra village in Turbi, about 580 kilometers northeast of Nairobi, killing at least 56 people including 22 children, some of them as young as six-month-old.
At least 10 of the assailants were killed during and after the raid. It was followed by a revenge attack by a group of Gabras who killed nine Boranas, including four children, after pulling them from a pick-up driven by a priest who had given them a lift.
Kitur said another Catholic priest was also involved in helping people wounded in Turbi attack that has sparked a massive security operation to net the killer bandits.
Two more Borana were killed on Thursday in other revenge attacks, which are blamed on a long-running disagreement over scant water and pasture resources in the dust-bowl region, according to police.
Police overnight dispersed Gabras who were razing Borana manyattas (traditional huts) in Maikonai area, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Marsabit, Kitur added.
Some 6,000 people from isolated communities sought shelter in Marsabit, the region's main town.
Despite reinforced police and army presence in the region since Wednesday, members of the rival clans, which have long-running disputes over water and pasture, continued to clash three days after the Turbi attack, which has been blamed on the Borana.
Bonaya Godana, the member of parliament for North Horr district in which the slaughter took place, told AFP he believed the bishop's murder was linked to the Turbi massacre.
"I have no doubt, this is part of the same network that killed people here," Godana said, refusing to give more details.