Nairobi, Kenya - Kenyan police have detained four more people for questioning over the murder of Italian Bishop Luigi Locati in the lawless north, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.
Pope Bendict has deplored the killing of Locati, 77, who was attacked when he returned to his home in the remote northern town of Isiolo from a pastoral centre.
His death followed a week of clan violence in the Marsabit district near the Ethiopian border in which more than 75 people, many of them children, were killed.
"We have so far received very important information that I am confident will sustain a strong case against the suspects," Robert Kitur, assistant commissioner of police, told Reuters by telephone.
Last week police arrested two men in connection with the murder.
Relatives of the slain missionary have arrived in the east African country for the bishop's burial on Wednesday. The funeral is expected to be attended by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and hundreds of faithful.
There have been mixed views as to whether the killing of the well-known bishop was connected to the unrest in Marsabit, a poor region where well-armed pastoralists decide access to land and scarce supplies of water.
Kitur said four local members of parliament were being questioned over the violence between the Borana and Gabra.
"We are assesing the case to see whether they took part in inciting, influencing, issuing inflammatory statements or supported the killings," he said.