“We shall remain indefatigable”: Catholic Bishops in Kenya Reaffirm Commitment to Teaching, Healing Mission

Kapsabet, 01 September, 2025 / 2:30 AM

Catholic Bishops in Kenya have reaffirmed their commitment to spearheading the Church’s mission of teaching and healing amid what they have described as “serious” challenges in the East African nation’s education and health sectors.

In his address during the Installation of Bishop John Kiplimo Lelei as the pioneer Local Ordinary of Kapsabet Catholic Diocese in Kenya, the country’s newest Episcopal See, the Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) said that the challenges will not halt the service to God’s people.

“We shall remain indefatigable in our resolution to continue helping our communities, building our country in the area of education and the area of health as much as we can,” Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba said at the August 30 event that was held at the Eliud Kipchoge Sports Complex in Kapsabet.

As the Catholic Church in Kenya and a Conference, Archbishop Muhatia said, “we shall maintain in our duty, we shall resolve to continue building our country.”

“I know we still have serious challenges in the areas of education and health,” he said and cited the June 3 closure of St. Mary’s Mumias Mission Hospital, reportedly linked to the accrued KES. 180 million (US$. 1.4 million) “in unpaid claims from government health schemes.”

The KCCB Chairman described the closure of the 93-year-old health facility of Kenya’s Kakamega Catholic Diocese as "regrettable" and expressed the hope that such is not going to happen to any other Catholic Mission hospital in the country.

“We pray it doesn’t happen to any other mission hospital, because what has ailed and brought Mumias Hospital to what has happened to it now is not only about Mumias Hospital,” the Local Ordinary of Archdiocese of Kisumu said.

He emphasized the need for swift action in resolving the underlying issues in order to safeguard the lives of countless family members, who depend on these institutions for their healthcare and livelihood.

Archbishop Muhatia said, “We pray that a solution is found urgently so that our people don't have to suffer because of occurrences like this that are avoidable.”

In February 2025, KCCB members weighed in on the stalemate between the Social Health Authority (SHA) and private health facilities in the country, including Catholic hospitals, over arrears and payments.

They called for a review of the 2023 Social Health Insurance Fund Act (SHIF Act 2023) following a controversy between SHA and private health facilities under the Rural and Urban Private Hospitals Association of Kenya (RUPHA) that had been occasioned by unsettled outstanding arrears of some KES 30 billion (US$ 231.1 million) from the previous health parastatal, the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).

The Catholic Church leaders raised concerns that at the time, the Catholic Church health facilities were owed over 2.5 billion (US$19.2 million) warning that failure on the part of the Kenyan government raised concerns over the sustainability of privately-owned health facilities.

“We are still very unhappy that our hospitals, which serve mainly the underprivileged, are grounding because the government is not keeping its promises to remit funds owed to them,” Kenya’s Catholic Bishops lamented in their collective statement at the launch of the 2025 Lenten Campaign that was realized under the theme, “The Kenya We Desire”.

In the statement that was read out on February 28 in the Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, where the Lenten Campaign was launched, KCCB members reiterated their appeal to the Kenyan government to clear the amount owed to faith-based Hospitals.

They said, “We need commitment from the Government on when this amount will be paid and not mere promises.”