Cecil Agutu is a Kenyan seminarian studying theology at the University of Navarra thanks to a scholarship from the CARF Foundation. Cecil also heads a parish project in his hometown, Kagan, which is located in the rural county of Homa Bay in Kenya. Uganda Martyrs Achego Catholic Church. The objective of this parish is multiple, because it will not only serve the faithful of the county, but will also contribute to improve the health, education and employment of its inhabitants.
This parish will bring together the 21 chapels that depend on it and that will serve 3,080 Catholics and a larger community of 30,553 inhabitants. "This is a noble project that will do a tremendous amount of good for many families," Cecil tells the CARF Foundation.
"We are building the new parish from scratch. So far we have managed to put in the basic liturgical vessels needed to celebrate Mass and other celebrations and also, to build the parish house, so that the pastor has already been able to live in the parish to serve the faithful. What we propose to do now is to build the church and Mary's wayside shrine, parish offices and related facilities," he explains.
The construction of the parish will also entail the construction of the creation of a hospital. The clinic and the two dispensaries that exist in the area are too few for the more than 30,000 inhabitants because the facilities are limited for simple ailments and first aid. In addition, there is no doctor to treat them. Many times people have to travel more than 29 kilometers to receive medical attention.
The parish will also have a water well. The lack of drinking water is the greatest need in the region, as there is no river or public water supply. This well will serve 1,055 people of the surrounding area and, in times of drought, to another 1,272 people who live more than one kilometer away.
In addition, will increase the level of education thanks to improvements to the Achego Primary and Secondary schools, which are sponsored by the Catholic Church and have the largest number of children in the area. Also to be built a second school in the village of God Ndiru, which for the time being lacks teachers and classrooms.
Finally, the construction of the church will entail the construction of the critical infrastructures such as a proper road and electricity, which will open the area to business and employment for young people. In this video, Cecil explains his parish's project, "Raising the Sail".
"The parish project we want to build will bring together the 21 chapels that depend on it and serve 3,080 Catholics and a wider community of 30,553 inhabitants. It is a noble project that will do a lot of good for many families," Cecil told the CARF Foundation.
Ninety-three years ago, the first Catholic missionaries arrived in Kagan (Kenya, Africa) and since then there have been many conversions. During this time, Catholics have promoted almost half of the existing schools in the rural town: fifteen primary schools and six secondary schools. The other half have been created by the government.
They have also built three wells in this time, two in villages and one for the only existing government health center in Kagan, which is as many as the government has built in the same time.
Only since September 2018, the church in Kagan has been erected as a parish, named Uganda Martyrs Achego Catholic Parish. This means that, at last, the village has the permanent presence of at least one resident priest and continuous mass service, in addition to serving families living in scattered areas of the sub-county.
Priest Philip Scheffer and Priest Hotsman, the first missionaries, crossed Lake Victoria from Ojola Catholic Station in Kisumu to establish St. Theresa Asumbi Parish in 1912. The place was full of wild animals and wizards who kept snakes in small pots called Asumbi. Later, the area was renamed Asumbi.
The missionaries built a thatched church in 1915 that non-believers burned in 1917. To the astonishment of the people, the fire did not burn the tabernacle, which prompted the missionaries to build another church of straw. D. Hotsman traveled to Europe in 1919 with samples of Asumbi's red earth to test whether it could be used to make bricks.
With the help of local believers, the missionaries made thousands of bricks between 1922 and 1923. St. Theresa Asumbi Church was completed in 1928 and served people from distant areas. Later, the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph established the Asumbi Convent and the Asumbi Teachers' School. A girls' primary and secondary school was also built in the area.
"In 1974, a chapel attached to St. Theresa Asumbi parish was established in my village of Kagan at a place known as Achego. It consisted of a platform covered with iron sheets. Achego was the place where my ancestors first settled when they migrated to this area. The nearby church grounds, elementary school and secondary school were donated by my family," says Cecil.
Cecil is a third generation Catholic. His grandparents converted to Catholicism. "My grandfather, Valentine Agutu, was a polygamist and before converting, he had practiced the religion of African animism. Together with my grandmother, Susana Odero Agutu, they converted to the Catholic Church thanks to the work of the Catholic missionaries of the Society of St. Joseph in our rural district," he recounts.
He is the second of six siblings, three sisters and three brothers. His father died a year and a half ago and, as the first boy in the family, it is now his turn to help his mother, Joyce Agutu.
"The closest parish to our home, St. Theresa Asumbi Parish, was 7 kilometers away and my father recounted that, as a child, he would walk there for confession on Saturdays and to attend Holy Mass on Sundays. My mother was an Anglican and converted to the Catholic Church after marrying my father."
Cecil studied a degree in Mathematics, Economics and Sociology at Egerton University in Kenya. He later studied a Masters in Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (South Africa) and a Masters in Philosophy at Strathmore University in Kenya.
"I worked a lot in the field of development with non-governmental organizations, especially in projects in rural areas and in less privileged neighborhoods in urban areas, for 17 years, before coming to Pamplona to study theology. I am an aggregate of the Prelature of Opus Dei and I am studying the second year of the Licentiate in Dogmatic Theology at the Ecclesiastical University of Navarra. I live in the Colegio Mayor Aralar," he explains.
At the end of the academic year he will be informed of his ordination to the priesthood.
Catholics in Kenya usually have to travel long distances, usually on foot, to go to confession and attend Holy Mass, due to the scarcity of churches and the few priests to attend them.
In addition, due to the low human, spiritual and economic formation of the population, cultural practices such as polygamy persist, which are detrimental to the dignity of individuals and hinder the spread and practice of the Catholic faith, and the spread of sects and other heterodox communities is frequent.
