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JP2 EVANGELIZERS TEAM INSPIRED BY KAISER’S LEGACY
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAKURU-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010
TAKE-1
John Paul II evangelizers team four days workshop opens today in Nakuru Catholic Diocese at St Mary’s Pastoral centre few days ahead of tenth anniversary of the death of a US Mill Hill Missionary, Rev Fr John Kaiser marked on August 24, 2010.
Left is Fr Kaiser (AP file photo)-from right to left- Fr Omolo, AJ, Lucy Wanjuru, Mary Mujala and Mwalimu Simon Rurinja- evangelizers team standing next to the site where Fr Kaiser was found dead/ PHOTO- Fr Richard Quinn
It is exactly 9 years ago Rev Fr. Joachim Omolo Ouko,AJ commemorated his 1st anniversary (see attached story allAfrica.com: Kenya: In Memory of Fr. John Anthony Kaiser- First … allafrica.com/stories/200108200028.html). Rev Fr. John Anthony Kaiser, was found dead along Naivasha Nakuru road on August 24, 2000 with his shot gun beside his body. He is remembered for his outspoken on human rights advocacy.
Fr Quinn consults with Mwalimu Francis Warui during one of the previous workshops in Molo- File photo by Fr Omolo, AJ
Rev Fr Richard Quinn, a Maryknoll Missionary who is also the Spiritual Director of JP2 evangelizers described Kaiser as very courageous human rights activist who served people of God in Kenya dedicatedly. Fr Quinn led the prayers at the site of his death on our way to Nakuru. He says he knew Father Kaiser very well.
Kaiser was not only a human rights activist who frequently denounced corruption among other social evils in public but also accused a powerful Kenyan minister of state of sexually violating a minor.
Like FBI the Kenyan government claimed the priest committed suicide because a shotgun was found near his body and a round of ammunition in his pocket. This theory has been sharply ruled out by fellow Kenyan human rights activist.
Kaiser also accused two government ministers of fomenting ethnic violence in 1992 and 1993 when an estimated two thousand people died in the internal conflicts. Since he came to Kenya as a missionary in 1960s Kaiser always defended the rights of his parishioners, a move that earned him many powerful enemies in the government set up.
One thing remembered about Father Kaiser is that he always loved to speak nothing else but the truth. It is against the background that he had received death threats, especially when he assisted two women from his parish to contact the Kenyan Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) after they said another cabinet minister had raped them.
Father Kaiser died the year Pope John Paul II declared-Novo Millennio Inuenteto (new millennium, new evangelization). While exhorting the faithful to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence since Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13:8), the Pope opened the way for the new evangelization and it is against the background that that JP2 evangelizers was formed.
The Pope had emphasized that it was the time for each local Church to assess its fervour and find fresh enthusiasm for its spiritual and pastoral responsibilities, by reflecting on what the Spirit has been saying to the People of God in this special year of grace, and indeed in the longer span of time from the Second Vatican Council to the Great Jubilee.
Jesus is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13). That is why we must give glory to Jesus Christ, for you reign today and for ever”. It is again why the year 2000 has been strongly marked by the request for forgiveness.
Born November 29, 1932, in Perham, Menisota- USA, Father Kaiser spent 20 years in the missions in the Kisii Diocese where he faced a lot of challenges while fulfilling his prophetic role.
In 1993 following the ethnic clashes, Father Kaiser asked his superiors to relieve him from Kisii to go to the Maela refugee camp in the Ngong Diocese where thousands of IDPs were camping.
He is also remembered in 1998 when courageously he testified before the Akiwumi Commission investigating the causes of the violence and the closing of the camp. Without fear or favour he fingered prominent cabinet ministers in the incumbent government as well as the then- dictator President Daniel arap Moi.
It is against the background that in November, 1999, the Kenyan government tried to deport him, claiming that his work permit had expired, the move that led him to go briefly into hiding in Kisii before he was granted a new work permit after intervention by the US Ambassador Johnnie Carshon and emeritus Bishop Colin Davis of Ngong.
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