KENYA: Vicar General for Nakuru Diocese Appointed New Bishop
Bishop-elect, Msgr. Cleophas Oseso
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Pope Francis on Wednesday, February 15, appointed the Vicar General for the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru in Kenya, Monsignor Cleophas Oseso Tuka as the new Bishop for the same Episcopal See, a position the new Bishop-elect accepts with “mixed feelings.”
On the day of the appointment, the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya His Excellency Archbishop Hubertus van Megen shared the message with Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) saying, “I have the honour and pleasure to inform you that His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Reverend Father Cleophas Oseso Tuka, as Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru.”
The appointment of the new Bishop comes nearly a year after Nakuru Diocese fell vacant on February 18, 2022, following the elevation of Most Rev. Maurice Muhatia Makumba as Archbishop for the Metropolitan See of Kisumu. Pope Francis then in the month of March appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Nairobi Archdiocese, Rt. Rev. David Kamau Nga’nga as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese.
The Bishop-elect, in an interview with AMECEA Online Thursday, February 16, said the new mission is challenging because of the nature of work but accepts the appointment with “trusts in God’s grace.”
“The message came as a surprise and I am still trying to understand,” Msgr. Oseso narrates and recounts how he received the message saying, “I received a call from the Nuncio’s Secretary for an appointment on a given date. Actually the Nuncio had never called me and I had a lot of questions.”
“When I visited the Nuncio and he delivered the message, I did not respond immediately but requested if he could give me some days to think about it,” the Bishop-elect revealed and continued, “To my surprise the Nuncio asked me to reflect within some hours and give feedback. Since then, I am still trying to understand what it is all about.”
Until his appointment, the Bishop-elect who was brought up in Nakuru Diocese but originally hails from the Archdiocese of Kisumu, Ukwala Parish, has been serving as the Vicar General since 2019 and doubled as the Father in Charge of Bahati Parish.
Msgr. Oseso appreciates that the Diocese is not new to him in terms of knowing the people and the places, a state that will facilitate his faster adjustments to the reality of the new ministry.
Asked during the Thursday interview about his priority focus for the Diocese, the successor of Archbishop Makumba emphasized the use of Diocesan strategic plan as a guide.
“Unlike a new person not familiar with the Diocese, I know where we are currently and the Diocese has been working on a five-year strategic plan which I intend to use as a guide going forward,” he said adding that the process of developing the strategic plan has been so inclusive and the clerics, Religious and the lay faithful have been fully involved.
He disclosed that the 2023-2027 strategic plan focuses on a self-sustaining diocese in terms of human resource and capital to help in developing various ministries including human integral development.
“The things I need to address are already identified in the strategic plan including food security, peace and reconciliation especially in areas prone to conflict, and also to make our small Christian Communities Christ centered so as to increase spiritual growth among the people,” Msgr. Oseso disclosed and added that he wishes to focus more on the “call to serve others above self.”
“The strategic plan also focuses on service, that is, as religious, priests and the lay faithful how to serve those whom we have been called to serve, how to become of service to the diocese and to one another,” he emphasized centralizing the act of service to St. Paul’s message who said, “out of love be of service to one another.”
The Bishop-elect was ordained in 1995. Since then, he has served as dean, parish priest, financial administrator and parochial vicar in Rochester Diocese, New York while heading Nakuru Diocese Mission Appeal office in New York, USA.
