KENYA: Prelate Whose Intent was to Serve in his Home Diocese, understands that Diversity “Is Part of a Priest’s Job Description”

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

After his appointment by Pope Francis on February 18, as the new Local Ordinary for Kisumu Metropolitan, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba narrates that the reality of life is a daring adventure.

In an exclusive interview with AMECEA Online Wednesday, March 9, the Prelate who is a native of Kenya’s Kakamega Diocese expresses how some 28 years ago was overjoyed when he was ordained to serve God as a Catholic priest, and fulfilled his heart’s desire saying, “I had chosen to be a diocesan priest and my focus was on living my entire life as a priest of Kakamega Diocese.”

He adds, “Little did I know that my priestly life would take a turn and move in a direction I was little prepared for.”

Recounting how his life has unfolded over the past years and how he has woken up to the reality that working in a different environment is part of a priest’s job description, the current Vice Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) and Principal Administrator of KCCB’s Secretariat narrates, “As Providence would have it, I only served in the Diocese of Kakamega for the first four years of my priesthood. After that I went for studies (Rome) then straight to the major seminary, St. Thomas Aquinas, Nairobi, and there has been no going back.”

Upon appointment to being bishop of Nakuru Diocese in 2009 by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Most Rev. Muhatia reveals: “I had mixed feelings but was completely unprepared for what awaited me in Nakuru, a people totally impelled by the love of Christ. Here, the universality of the Church is both professed and lived.”

In his twelve years of episcopate, the Prelate who has been Apostolic Administrator of Kisumu Archdiocese since November 2021, feels confident that serving in different and diverse environments is “Only limited to the manner and style but not to the substance.”

Hence, he expounds in reference to his new appointment as the Archbishop for Kisumu, “I will depend on the love and faith of the priests, the Religious and the laity of Kisumu to help me find my bearing. For the rest, I submit myself in the hands of Christ the Good Shepherd, to learn from him and be guided by him.”

He appreciates the faithful of Nakuru Diocese where he has served dedicatedly for the past 12 years, and acknowledges that as he obeys the voice of the Church to continue serving in a different environment, “I still have the urge to stay on in this community of faith (Nakuru), which knows no boundaries of tribe or language and is fully committed to the unity of the Church.”

“Thank you very much for what you have been to me. You are terrific! Alumnus of Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome said during the Wednesday interview adding that “The people of Nakuru are a most loving people and they will forever be ingrained in my heart.”

He appreciates the love, collaboration and commitment of the faithful of Nakuru Diocese and describes their gesture of dedication to Christ and to the Church, as a letter which he will keep “reading over and over again.”

He assured the Christians that the “Lord will give them another shepherd after His own heart,” but asked them to continue praying that “the Lord of the harvest may send the “labourer” to Nakuru, and when he does let them welcome him and give him all the support as they did to me, and much more.”

To the People of Kisumu where the new Archbishop will officially begin his mission as the 3^rd Archbishop after installation on Saturday, March 19, he says, “I come to Kisumu open minded and open hearted; ready to enter into the school of the people of this great Archdiocese so that together, covered in the armour of faith, we may continue to anchor the Church of Kisumu in Christ the Lord.”

According to Archbishop Makumba, his vision for Kisumu Archdiocese is encrypted in his new coat of arms “Duc in altum,” (Cast into the deep) borrowed from Jesus’ own teachings that Peter’s success depended upon his obedience to Jesus.

Consequently, he shares: “I am aware of the great work that has been accomplished in Kisumu by my predecessors. The rootedness of faith is everywhere to be seen. Working on and with this rich history of faith, it is my (hope) that I keep the hand on the plough and look back not. It is my desire that together as an Archdiocese we may launch our nets into the deep and that we may together as the family of God be nourished at the banquet of his mysteries.”

His previous coat of arms “ut unum sint” (That they may be one), was an inspiration he says, “after the country was from a most divisive general election and there was need to rediscover our common origins in God, and to be fed on the truth that the heart of Jesus was pierced for our salvation.” Therefore, “I dwelt on building the unity of the family of the people of God; a family that is welcoming to all the people and leaves its door forever open.”

Additionally, he expounds: “Constant in both coats of arms is the Eucharist. It underlines its centrality in building the Body of Christ and in preparing it for mission since the Eucharist makes us one “ut unum sint” and the Eucharist nourishes us and renders us ready to launch into the depth of mission.”

“So, the two coats of arms are closely interconnected because the mission of Christ for the Church is the same but the emphasis could be different as dictated by the dynamism of the times,” the Archbishop concludes.