SAINTHOOD NOMINATION

Kenya's saint candidate exhumed. Maurice Otunga became a cardinal in 1973. Church officials have secretly exhumed the body of Kenya's first Catholic cardinal, Maurice Otunga, whom they plan to nominate for sainthood. The body was exhumed by night to avoid a confrontation with the cardinal's ethnic group, which blocked an earlier attempt to move his remains. Elders from the Bukusu people feared the exhumation could trigger a curse.

The church plans to re-bury the body in a mausoleum in a Nairobi suburb where former Pope John Paul II held a mass. "We are planning to rebury him in Resurrection Gardens in Karen - where the Church plans to build a chapel - as soon as we finish consultations," Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki told the AFP news agency. The agency quoted another church official as saying the body was disinterred during the night because "we didn't want trouble".

Archbishop Mwana a'Nzeki said the cardinal should be re-buried in a manner that befits a man regarded as a saint by many Kenyan Catholics. He said the Kenyan church would soon seek the Vatican's approval to start investigations into whether Cardinal Otunga is a worthy candidate for sainthood. A Catholic quoted by Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper voiced sadness at the manner of the exhumation.

"This was an honourable person... He should have been exhumed in a ceremony by the church." Maurice Otunga became Kenya's first cardinal in 1973 under the papacy of Pope Paul VI. He died aged 80 in September 2003.