From: joachim omolo ouko
News Dispatch with Father Omolo Beste
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2014
Yuvnalis from Kisii writes: “Hallo, Fr. Beste, on the issue of the Catholic Bishops not commenting on the social ills. Most of the Media consumed by the public is based on what the editors’ think makes good reading to the public. They want headlines that sell. Since Catholics don’t normally say things in a sensitized way, the chances of it being given front page coverage are very small.
Hence the need for the Catholic church of having its own means of giving out news and making these outlets popular enough for people to consume them. Ask the Lady (Susan) whether she listens to Waumini Radio or Family Radio and TV”.
Mama Lily from Bungoma writes: “Father Beste let us be realistic you did not answer Susan from Kibwezi’s question satisfactorily. To me you were trying to defend the bishops. It is very clear that at the height of President Moi’s corrupt authoritarian rule from around 1988 the Catholic bishops were very vocal in condemning the ills, particularly Bishop Ndingi Mwana ‘a Nzeki who spoke for the marginalised and oppressed with a clarity and empathy that captured the mood of the nation.
This was especially after the 1992 ethnic cleansing as a political tool around the elections. Ethnic cleansing had swept through the Rift Valley, Western, Nyanza and other areas where opposition party supporters were stronghold.
When President Moi vacated office in 2002, and his former vice president, Mwai Kibaki took over relations between Church and State altered dramatically. Bishops from Kibaki’s region took political side, supporting him publicly.
In 2008 hundreds of churches were razed to the ground in the Rift Valley because they were identified with particular ethnic groups or in some cases simply because a careless Pastor had made partisan or bigoted sermons in the heat of the campaigns.
I was particularly perturbed when I read an article from one of the daily newspapers on Tuesday November 26, 2013 when Bishop Paul Kariuki of Catholic Diocese of Embu lashed out at the US/ UK and France accusing them of undermining the sovereignty of Kenya.
Kariuki was speaking in Embu when he accused the West of compounding Kenya’s problems by failing to support deferral of cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto, at the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the action to abscond from voting at the UNSC was clear indication that they never had the interest of Kenyans at heart.
Father I was perturbed, not because the Embu bishop spoke because Uhuru belongs to his ethnic community, I was perturbed because he did not speak about the victims, many of whom were brutally killed, their properties destroyed, stolen, and family members traumatized.
Father sorry for writing long article, but I feel I must to spell it out so that our bishops should change their trend of pastoral approach. This time I am referring to one of your articles on your Jaluo.Kom website where Emily from Nairobi wanted to know whether Eldoret Catholic bishop Cornelius Korir backed Jubilee’s motion to remove Kenya from Rome Statute because he is a Kalenjin, and if this is the case, as a shepherd of the flock in Eldoret where we have many tribes other than Kalenjins, don’t you think this makes him partisan? Thank you Father Beste and keep on the good you are doing-God bless”.
Thank you for the question Yuvnalis. I agree with you that there are many good things the bishops have said but media seem to be highlighting negative ones because this is what sells.
Mama Lily I don’t think I defend the bishops there are good things they have said just as Yuvnalis has mention. But I do agree with you that as individual bishops there are things they have said that tend to support their leaders from their ethnic communities or regions. This is because blood is always thinker than water of baptism.
The fact that I am a bishop or a priest does not remove this fact from me. The only thing that we should be very careful with what we speak in public and private. That is why the two individual bishops you have quoted have been misunderstood from what they spoke.
As a body of catholic bishops’ conference there are many pastoral letters they have issued challenging Kibaki’s government as well as Uhuru. I am not sure whether bishop Korir backed Jubilee MPs in passing the motion to remove Kenya from Rome Statute that formed International Criminal Court (ICC) because he is a Kalenjin, what I do know for sure is that bishop Korir like any other Kenyan has his democratic right to air his views.
I also do agree with you that it is not only bishop of Embu but also evangelical pastors. The words they have spoken tend to ignore the victims of the post election violence and only angry that Ruto and Uhuru are at The Hague.
On the side of Korir, this is not the first time he has been accused of being partisan- In April 2012 he was challenged that by attending Kamatusa meeting in Eldoret he was tribal. Kamatusa meeting was initiated by MPs allied to William Ruto and took place in Catholic Church pastoral centre attended.
Among Kenyans who accused him included former Mombasa Catholic Archdiocese Bishop Boniface Lele. He said religious leaders who attended the Gema and Kamatusa meetings were tribal.
Speaking during Easter vigil mass, Lele said religious leaders who side with their ethnic political leaders who have been alleged to have mentioned on post election violen propagated impunity and tribalism.
Lele was referring to the Gema and Kamatusa meetings held in Limuru and Eldoret respectively attended by Bishop Cornelius Korir of Eldoret who led a host of priests at the Kamatusa meeting and Peter Njenga who attended the Gema meeting.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail obolobeste@gmail.com
Omolo_ouko@outlook.com
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