Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The European christian missionaries of Nairobi's shanty towns

I watched the news yesterday both in shock and utter dismay.All of a sudden and after 20 years of purported child molestation Father Renato Kizito is in the limelight for all the bad reasons.I have never met Fr.Renato in person but i know so many positive things he has done for desolate and hopeless ghetto picken of Nairobi city.Take for instance Koinonia....who in the ghettos does not know Koinonia?

Koinonia has changed lives....from rags to riches sort of change.I remember when Radio Waumini was launched.It put reggae in its programming schedule and there was this massive outcry from "self-righteous" Kenyans. The bearded priest was instrumental in the setting up of this Catholic FM radio station.Everybody was asking why a Catholic radio station would play reggae??But to the slum people this was another clever way of the so called pedophile priest of bringing inspiration in the scrap metal and carton box jungles of Nairobi.

Just two days ago someone was arrested trying to print out pictures of naked children in a studio in the Hurlingham area of Nairobi.The big question was, what is the rationale of acquiring photos of naked minors??Techno savvy readers of this blog know that there is a variety of powerful graphic software in the market e.g., adobe photoshop,Illustrator et cetera.Street wise readers also know that in Kenya, just like Nigeria; extortion, blackmail and kidnapping amongst other misdeeds are a common phenomenon.Someone might have played around with photoshop to blackmail Renato.Iam not insinuating that Renato is innocent but most of us must have heard of the phrase "burden of proof" and "innocent until proven guilty".Lets give due process a chance...and we can then know "beyond reasonable doubt" whether Renato is or is not guilty.

Finally, i would like to big up Martin De pares and Daniel Comboni missionaries for all the good job they did in downtown Huruma.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009