KENYA: Bishop Dominic Kimengich of Lodwar Appeals for Solidarity in Action

Speaking to AMECEA Online News in Nairobi, Bishop Kimengich
said “It is not enough for people to just hear what is going on in some places
and remain unaffected; as much as praying for our dear brothers in hardship
areas is important, we need to take action to remedy/alleviate the problem.”

“We are just
focusing on our own development, own interests; where is the spirit of
brotherhood, where is the spirit of unity and solidarity?” he posed.

Bishop
Kimengich whose Diocese of Lodwar has the biggest refugees camp in the country
said that currently owing to the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, there are
many refugees coming in from South Sudan yet the Church in the region is not
doing much to help.

“Our own
Christians who live peacefully elsewhere and read about these unfortunate
situations in the media ought to do something. We don’t see much, we don’t see
people really trying to reach out to these people affected, even to visit
them,” he said adding that “Yet these are our fellow Catholics, our fellow
Christians, our fellow brothers and sisters who are caught up in such
unfortunate situations, and they need us. We talk about being one faith, one
Christian family, but where is our action; because faith without action is
dead,” he challenged.

Bishop
Kimengich said that most of the dioceses in conflict and hardship areas,
especially with nomadic and pastoralists communities have been relying heavily
on missionaries from abroad for pastoral service. He is appealing for the Dioceses
that have more priests, in that spirit of sharing and solidarity to send priests
to such places and work as missionaries from our region.  

“Diocese of
Lodwar for instance is 77,000 square kilometers; we only have right now 10
local diocesan clergy from Turkana area out of 56 the total number of priests.
The rest are missionaries from Overseas,” he said.

Bishop
Kimengich said that his diocese has been relying on missionaries who are coming
from the countries where vocation to priesthood is dwindling. “The local Church
must therefore arise and carry out its due mandate on evangelization by coming
up with a sort of a plan that involves all the dioceses within the country, in
order to respond to the shortage,” he said.

“Evangelization
in very much needed in to the nomadic and pastoralists communities. Many of the
atrocities committed by these people happen simply because the Gospel has not been
preached to them,” he said adding that “I believe that somebody vested with the
understanding of the Gospel values will not take a gun and kill an innocent
child, an elderly helpless person or any other person for that matter.”

The Bishop
attributed the problem of cattle rustling to the negligence of the government
to take action seriously. “What you are seeing now is the outcome of the negligence
of the government which has been there for years. The issue of marginalization of
these communities in matter of education, infrastructures, health facilities and
other development strategies has led the people to fight among themselves for
their survival.”

He said that
this must come to an end. “It is really a shame that something like this is
still happening in our country. There are a lot of guns in that area; almost
every family has a gun,” he said adding that “It is only the government that
can come out strongly and disarm these people.”

Bishop
Kimengich said that his diocese has always been working to promote development
in a small way. “The government must join us for bigger impact. They must deal
with those issues that trigger conflicts in order to ensure a lasting peace in the
Turkana area,” he said.

Source: Pamela Adinda, AMECEA
Social Communications.