Fresh Allegations against Fr Kizito are False
Nairobi, Friday May 27, 2011----Following media reports that Fr. Renato Kizito Sesana , a Comboni Missionary, was arrested Thursday Morning after being accused of having sexually abused a young man in the recent past, Koinonia Old Beneficiaries Welfare Association would like to clarify the statement and state as follows:
This morning Fr. Kizito was taken to Kibera Law Courts where he was scheduled to appear before the court. While we were there some of our beneficiaries saw a white car drive out of the Court premises carrying Fr. Kizito. The windows of the car were partly tinted with pieces of old newspapers. It was not clear where he was being taken to.
We have received news that Fr. Kizito has been released. He is now tired after a long 36 hours of investigations with the police. He has taken time off to refresh himself.
We seek clarification from the Commissioner of Police on why he was not arraigned before a Magistrate today and why charges were not preferred against him yet he had been in police custody for more than 24 hours.
On this note, we would like to state that if the case has no evidence, we would like to ask the 26 year old man who recorded the statement to present himself to the police and face the full force of the law for leveling false accusations against Fr. Kizito.
As old beneficiaries of Koinonia Community, we would like to state that the allegations leveled against Fr. Kizito are ill intended and act as a buildup to revive a thwarted case almost two years ago in which he was unjustly accused of having abused many children over the past 20 years. The Attorney General ordered the closure of the case stating that there was no shred of evidence to support any of the accusations.
With regards to how the police conducted themselves in this recent incident, we are deeply concerned in how the police were insensitive to the emotional needs of innocent children living at Kivuli Centre. The police came in at night, heavily armed with little concern for the children who were just about to sleep. Kivuli Centre is a charitable children institution. The ambush of the home by heavily armed officers only served to traumatize and stigmatize the innocent children who now have to undergo thorough and extensive trauma counseling process.
Fr. Kizito is the founder of Koinonia Community, which runs several children homes and other educational activities within and in the outskirts of Nairobi.
Following the closure of the Fr Kizito’s file, AG’s chamber moved ahead to open a case filed by the organization against its former administrator against criminal activities – theft and fraud during his tenure in office. The case is still on. However, his plea to refer the case to the High Court was adjourned in yesterday’s May 26 ruling. The matter will next be in court on 7th July 2011.
During this time Fr. Kizito’s accusers have not stopped to try in different ways to put obstacles to the work of Koinonia community and in particular Fr. Kizito’s mission in Africa. On one side they have tried approaching Fr Kizito through intermediaries, asking to be reinstated in their positions, in “Exchange for Peace”, besides approaching friends and employees, promising assistance in exchange for cooperation.
They have since created a network of more allies; recently the accusers, lured the ex-Shalom House manager who in turn started approaching some employees of Koinonia community asking them to stand by him when he acts against Fr. Kizito. He has been busy giving money to some people and has made telephone threats against others from private numbers claiming that he has new evidence against Kizito .
All this is creating a climate of intimidation so that people would be afraid to speak out the truth.
In this context other strange incidents have been happening, that seem to be organized to create tension and embarrassment. To mention one incident, at around 8.00 pm on the night of Saturday 12 March 2011, a group of men armed with machine guns and pistols stormed the premises of the Comboni Missionaries along Ngong Road. For almost half an hour, they held at gun point four elderly priests they found present.
With clear intentions, the men specifically asked for the room of the Comboni Treasurer and that of Father Renato Kizito Sesana. When informed that Father Kizito was absent, they forced the door to his room open and ransacked it. Notably, only the rooms of the Comboni Treasurer and that of Father Kizito were raided, leaving the more than 12 other rooms untouched.
At the time these events were unfolding, Father Kizito was away visiting another religious community. He arrived back at the Comboni compound, where he lives, shortly after the goons had already left the premises and officers from Kilimani police station had arrived.
It is clear that some criminals do use such allegations of sexual offences to instill fear in lay and religious people working with young people, usually with the intention of extorting money.
The Koinonia staff, management and members believe that some unscrupulous people, in an effort to escape from their responsibilities in these matters, and from the possible wrath of the law, are trying to create false allegations, deterrence and extortion.
We hope that the police have now realized that all these allegations have been baseless and without merit and therefore, the police should not condone any further allegations against Fr. Kizito without critically analyzing those allegations and further investigating any complainants to be. It has caused enough embarrassment and we hope that they are also embarrassed.
By Koinonia Community