An Irish missionary was arrested for protesting at a land rights demonstration in Kenya.
Father Gabriel Dolan, in his 40s, has led a campaign to help squatters regain their right to public land, which was assigned to the cronies of former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi.
The human rights group Front Line said he had been beaten and arrested for his work there over the last decade.
"He's been there for a long time and he's always been to the fore in defending human rights," said director Mary Lawlor.
Fr Dolan was born in Derrydonnelly, Co Fermanagh and is a member of the Kiltegan Fathers missionary order. He was arrested today after leading a protest against the grabbing of a public park by a business in Kitale, a small rural town around 330km from the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The area contains some of the best agricultural land in the country. But it also contains the largest amount of illegally and irregularly acquired public land. There were hopes that the new Government elected in 2002 would redistribute the land but there has been little progress so far.
Last year, Fr Dolan won a human rights award in Kenya for his work with the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Kitale. The aid agency Trocaire, which supports his work, said it believed the missionary was being targeted.
"They're trying to get after him mainly because of the communal activities he's been involved in around justice and the land issue here because there's been so much corruption around it," said its East Africa regional director Noel Maloney.
"He in particular has highlighted the issue with protest marches and masses and a lot of letter to the papers."
In a letter to the local Daily Nation newspaper last year, Fr Dolan wrote that the Government had to stop evicting squatters from public land when they had nowhere else to go.
"A new Government cannot wipe out the poor in the flash of a bulldozer. It needs to restore their dignity and treat them with respect," he said. Mr Maloney, who is based in Nairobi, said it was very unusual that the priest had been refused bail today, along with 23 other peace activists, despite putting up money and the deeds to the parish church.
"There's little bit of worry that he might be PNG'd (persona non grata) out of the country. His work permit and visa would be taken off him and he would be extradited out." Fr Dolan is being supported by the Bishop of Kitale, the Irish-born Bishop Maurice Crowley.
PA