OUTRAGED Kirk leaders yesterday handed a strongly worded protest to the Kenyan High Commissioner over the brutal attack by police officers on a leading African churchman.

The Church of Scotland's move came after the Rev Timothy Njoya was beaten with pick-axe handles in Nairobi, as he pleaded with the police last week.

He asked them to stop their violence during a day of riots in which at least seven people were killed as the Kenyan authorities broke up street demonstrations.

The letter, signed by Dr Alison Elliot, convener of the Church and Nation Committee, and the Rev John Harris, head of the Board of World Mission stated: ''We understand the police desecrated the Anglican cathedral.

''When Mr Njoya sought to talk with them, they knocked him down and beat him so savagely that, for a time, there were fears for his life.''