Six men, including a Catholic priest, pleaded not guilty Friday to the murder last month of a 77-year-old Italian bishop in the diocese he founded in northern Kenya four decades ago.
The accused appeared before Nairobi High Court Judge Onesmus Mutungi charged with the murder of Bishop Luigi Locati who was shot and killed on July 14 in his rectory in Isiolo, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital.
Mutungi remanded in custody Kenyan priest Father Guyo Wako, Mohammed Molu Bagajo, Aden Ibrahim Mohammed, Mahati Ali Halake, Roba Balla Barichi and Mohamed Diqa Wario. Their trial is set to start on September 7.
If convicted the six could face the death penalty, although Kenya has not executed a convict since 1987.
Locati was murdered at the church compound in Isiolo the same week that at least 80 people were killed in an inter-clan village massacre and reprisal attacks in northeastern Kenya.
Police initially believed the bishop's murder may have been linked to those clashes but later said it appeared the bishop's slaying was the result of a power struggle within the diocese as Locati prepared to retire.
Thousands of mourners, including Vatican officials, friends and family from Italy and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, turned out for the July 20 funeral of Locati.
The bishop founded the Isiolo diocese as a small parish church in 1963 and had fought tirelessly for the residents of the area.
A native of Vinzaglio in the northern Italian province of Vercelli, Locati was ordained a priest in 1952 and came to Kenya ten years later.
Throughout his stay in Kenya, he was involved in numerous humanitarian activities, notably building schools and wells in the semi-arid region, which is rife with interclan tension over water and pastures.