KENYA: Kenyan Priest Buried in Venezuela Gave His Life “Totally to the Mission”
Memorial stone for the late Fr. Josiah K'Okal
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The late Fr. Josiah Asa K’Okal a member of the Institute of Consolata Missionaries (IMC) who was laid to rest at San José Parish in Venezuela, a parish run by Capuchin Friars has been remembered by friends, family members, relatives, his fellow friars and the indigenous people of Venezuela where he served all through his priestly life, as a man who gave his life totally to the mission.
The Kenyan-born cleric who was buried on Tuesday, January 9, is said to have died under unclear circumstances after leaving the community on January 1, while riding a bicycle and had left his phone in the house.
In a homily during his funeral Mass on Thursday, January 11, in Gem-Malele (his home in Kenya) under St. Boniface Catholic parish in Aluor, Fr. Chrisphine Oduor, IMC stressed that the late Fr. K’Okal was ready to give his life freely as a missionary.
“Since his ordination in 1997, he was posted in Venezuela but amidst the crisis that was in that country, Fr. K’Okal served the marginalized indigenous people with all his love,” Fr. Oduor recalled and narrated further, “Our dear Fr. K’Okal loved justice and stood firm for it. He was a committed priest and gave his life totally to the mission.”
Fr. Oduor recounted a time when the situation was tough in Venezuela but the late Fr. K’Okal never requested to be posted back in his homeland of Kenya. Instead, he could say, “If you get to know the Venezuelans well and love them as they are, in return they will reciprocate the love and you can’t think of going back to your homeland.”
The funeral Mass at the late Fr. K’Okal’s home was attended by the IMC’s regional superior for Kenya/Uganda region, Fr. Peter Makau, the vice regional superior Fr. Zachary Kariuki, Very Rev Fr. Vincent Odundo the Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kisumu, Kenya, priests, religious and Christians.
Because of his love and commitment to the Warao people whom he served in Venezuela for 26 years, Fr. Oduor said “Fr. K’Okal studied their language and culture and accompanied their migration to other regions of Venezuela and Brazil.”
During the funeral Mass at Gem-Malele in Kenya’s Kisumu Archdiocese, a memorial stone of the late Fr. K’Okal was blessed and carried in a boat that was used to carry him on his ordination day to the priesthood in 1997 and was later installed at the family mausoleum beside his mother’s grave.
Eulogizing his confrere and parish mate from Kenya, Fr. Sylvester Ogutu, IMC, affirmed that the late cleric has been a “sign of humility and availability in matters of missionary life.”
He said, “Fr. Josiah has always been a model priest and brother to me. I constantly consulted him on matters of missionary and family, and he didn’t hesitate to orient me on many things. As I eulogize him, I promise to follow in his footsteps as I follow Christ.”
The Kenyan-born cleric who is currently the Curate of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mambone Parish in Mozambique, recounts the many occasions they have been in contact with the late Fr. K’Okal saying, “When I served in his first public Mass after priestly ordination as an alter server, his simplicity came out clearly on the way he treated the young altar servers with respect and fraternal correction to those who made some mistakes during eucharistic celebrations.”
He narrated further, “After I joined the Consolata’s and was ordained a priest, we celebrated together my very first Public Mass at Kahawa West parish, (In Kenya’s capital Nairobi) and constantly he has been encouraging me in the mission work.”
Through the late K’Okal Fr. Ogutu said, “I have loved the Consolata Missionaries since I had promised myself that if I join the Consolata’s I would be l like Fr. Josiah K’Okal.”
Other than the Funeral Mass at Fr. K’Okal’s home in Kenya, the members of the Consolata missionaries celebrated another Mass at Consolata Shrine Westlands-Nairobi on Friday, January 12.
Fr. K’okal died at 54 years old and had been in the religious profession for 30 years and a priest for 26 years.
