KENYA: Catholic Bishop Calls for Permanent Solution After Church, Mosque Torched

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Amidst disarrays and chaos during demonstrations in Kenya organized by the opposition leader against the government, Catholic Prelate has condemned the evil act witnessed on Monday, March 27, when a church and mosque were burnt down and called for a permanent solution to the problem.

“I am asking the people, especially Christians and Muslims, to unite with the leaders, to find a peaceful solution that does not create enmity between us,” Bishop Willybard Kitogho Lagho of Kenya’s Malindi Diocese, said in a statement released after the burning of a Church and a mosque, adding that there is need to have “A solution that will allow members of different faiths to worship and carry out their activities in accordance with the Kenyan constitution.”

The Pentecostal Church of East Africa (PCEA) and the Al Aksa Mosque, situated in the outskirts of Nairobi city, Kibera and also the largest informal settlement area in the country, were set ablaze by a group of goons on Monday night and property destroyed.

“I am not happy with this incident and I strongly condemn this act of destruction of places of worship and property of the PCEA Church and the Al Aksa mosque,” the Bishop expressed his anger revealing that “the reason for the destruction of the buildings and the habit of looting is hidden in the dispute about the legal ownership of the areas between the PCEA campus and the Al Aksa mosque.”

According to Bishop Lagho the chairman for the Commission of Ecumenism and Inter-religious Dialogue at the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), the “feud has been going on for a long time, and as media reports show that the court gave a verdict, every time there is a protest, it raises this conflict between the mosque and the Church in Kibera.”

The Church leader noted that the destruction was done by protestors who were neither Christians nor Muslims but had bad intentions to steal, destroy shops and other properties of the Mosque and the church in Kibera.

In his statement signed Tuesday, March 28, a day after the destruction, the Kenyan Prelate asked Christians and Muslims not to accept separation from politicians or looters.

A day after the destruction, Religious leaders under their umbrella body the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) visited the torched Church and Mosque condemning the ugly act and called on perpetrators to repent.

“We start by condemning yesterday’s incidences of attack on the mosque and church. Those were incidences of destruction. Our wish is that the perpetrators repent,” the PCEA Moderator Rt. Rev. Thegu Mutahi flanked by religious leaders from other denominations said during their visit and added, “We know that the government is supposed to take steps in investigating the incidence and victims, but for us, we dedicate them to God.”