• When I was detained in 1982, Father Lolar, my former teacher in the Mother of Apostles Seminary, Eldoret paid my wife a visit with a message from Bishop Ndingi offering her a job as a cateress
• Unfortunately, when Bishop Ndingi retired from active service in the church, the church seemed to retire with him as his voice was replaced with great silence.
BY KOIGI WAMWERE
I write this small note to salute Archbishop Ndingi Mwana wa Nzeki for his great contribution to this country as a great patriot and Kenyan of great courage in the struggle for multiparty democracy, freedom, human rights, social justice.
I also celebrate him for stopping President Daniel Moi from addressing faithful in the Catholic Church as opposed to what we see today, where every function in the church is a political rally.
While I salute Bishop Ndingi for many things, I also thank him for his courageous generosity to my family when I was in detention.
When I was detained in 1982, Father Lolar, my former teacher in the Mother of Apostles Seminary, Eldoret paid my wife a visit with a message from Bishop Ndingi offering her a job as a cateress at St. Mary’s Pastoral Center in Nakuru County.
President Moi then called Bishop Ndingi to inquire why the Church had given the wife of a subversive and detainee a job. The bishop said it was precisely because her husband was in detention that he had given her a job, to support the young family without anything to live on. Bishop Ndingi added that he would be more than willing to oblige the President as soon as I was set free.
After my release from detention, the church excused my wife from her job as Bishop Ndingi had promised Moi. Nonetheless, we remained eternally grateful to Bishop Ndingi and the Catholic Church. Needless to say, I survived my detentions and political incarcerations because others like Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki had fought for us.
Unfortunately, when Bishop Ndingi retired from active service in the church, the church seemed to retire with him as his voice was replaced with great silence.
Brother Bishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki, Rest In Peace, as you take your deserved place in heaven.
This note was first published on Koigi Wamwere’s Facebook page
