Troubled Kenyan Community Hopes Catholic Priest’s Gruesome Murder to End Decades of Violent Conflicts

In Elgeyo Marakwet, especially in the slopes and dry thorn bushes of Kerio Valley, Fr. Allois was in his element. All he needed was a stick to navigate the rough terrain. The stick was firmly held in his hand on the day he was found lying in the pool of his blood with two bullet wounds, one in his neck and another in his stomach. His assailants snuck on him as he descended a hill from Holy Mass with SCC members, stick and water bottle in hand.

Fr. Allois chose to serve among the poor residents terrorized by bandits. In the cries of locals for peace, his voice resounded throughout the community, calling the criminals to conversion. 

The Kenyan Catholic Priest’s blood, Bishop Dominic Kimengich of Eldoret said, will be “a seed for new life” in the community set back by decades of cattle rustling and killings.

“We believe that there is a reason behind everything that happens. It could be that God is talking to us. God might have wanted to take this young man for the sake of peace in Kerio Valley,” Bishop Kimengich said on Sunday, May 25 during Holy Mass that was held in honour of the slain Priest.

The Kenyan Catholic Bishop continued, “Fr. Allois’ blood which was spilt innocently will not go for nothing. Just as Jesus spilt his blood to save us, we believe that the blood of all those who give their lives becomes the seed for new life.”

“I truly believe that Fr. Allois didn’t die for nothing,” the Local Ordinary of Eldoret reiterated in his address to locals who gathered at Nerkwo Parish grounds in his Episcopal See.

Bishop Kimengich recalled that Fr. Allois expressed the desire to be a “missionary” shortly after he ordained him a Priest in November 2022. The Bishop would eventually commission him to start a new Parish in a place, where few would be ready to go to evangelize.

“I remember that a year after he was ordained a Priest, Fr. Allois came to me requesting to become a missionary. At the time, our focus was on the Turkana people (served by the Kenyan Catholic Diocese of Lodwar). Later, when we wanted to start the Parish of Tot in Kerio Valley, I approached him, requesting that he be the one to start the Parish,” the Local Ordinary of Eldoret, who started his Episcopal Ministry as Auxiliary Bishop of Lodwar Diocese in May 2010 and later as Local Ordinary narrated.

He continued in reference to the late Fr. Allois, “He had other engagements here. He was in charge of schools. I reminded him of his desire to become a missionary. I said, ‘I would like you to go and start the new Parish of Tot’. He readily said yes.”

Bishop Kimengich hailed the courage of the late Fr. Allois who he said went to Tot wholeheartedly and “ready to give his life to the new Parish.”

Expressing grief at the passing on of Fr. Allois as a personal loss, the Kenyan Catholic Bishop, who has been at the helm of Eldoret Diocese since his installation in February 2020 said, “What has happened has affected me in a very special way because it is I who ordained Fr. Allois. Spiritually, this is my son.”

Many have linked the killing of Fr. Allois to banditry, with reports indicating that detectives showed up at the Parish to meet the Catholic Priest on two consecutive days before his death.

According to a May 25 report by The Standard, a Kenyan national publication, detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kenya came to Fr. Allois’ Parish residence in Tot on May 16, knocked on the door and inquired his whereabouts.

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St. Mathias Mulumba Tot Parish Catechist, Richard Ruto, told The Standard that after the detectives were informed that Fr. Allois was away on his evangelization apostolate, they retreated at a local hotel adjacent to the Parish, stayed there for a while then left.

The detectives would reappear the following day, May 17, making inquiries about the Priest’s whereabouts, and left immediately they were told that he was away.

According to the Catechist, the visits by the detectives amid the ongoing operation to weed out suspected criminals, caused the slain Catholic Priest to be perceived by armed individuals as “a spy”, hence his brutal killing days later, on May 22.

Meanwhile, Bishop Kimengich has called for action to bring Fr. Allois’ killers to justice.

In his address to residents of Nerkwo, the Kenyan Catholic Bishop expressed gratitude to the government officials’ readiness to address the security challenges in Kerio Valley.

“Maybe it has taken the life of Fr. Allois so that we can think seriously about solving the issue of the lack of peace in Kerio Valley,” he said, and added, “It could be that it had become normal for children, women, and young people to be killed in Kerio Valley. So, this was a wakeup call to all of us.

“There is no need for words now,” Bishop Kimengich said, and demanded, “Can we see action?”

He said that from his vast experience from working in other bandit-infested areas, especially in Lodwar Diocese (2010-2019), it was the first time he was witnessing the murder of a Catholic Priest.

“Before coming to Eldoret I worked in Turkana where we had similar challenges. But never has a Priest been killed in all this chaos,” the 64-year-old Catholic Bishop said, and added, “There was a time when 40 people were killed on the Ethiopian side, but never was a Priest killed. The people never go on the mission to kill the Priest. Yet it was the Priests who went to collect the bodies and came to bury them.”

According to the Bishop of Eldoret, the security challenge in Elgeyo Marakwet “continues to be a big, terrible thing.”

In his appeal to authorities to work harder towards ending insecurity in the region, he said, “This is a very serious thing which must be looked into. Our region has become very dangerous. It has become Somalia (the African country infested by Al Shahab militants).”

Bishop Kimengich expressed concern that moving forward, pastoral agents will be hesitant to evangelize the troubled region.

“If a Priest says that they are not feeling safe, I can’t force them to go there. I will tell them to leave the place immediately. If the Sisters say that they are not feeling safe, I have to tell them to come out,” he said.

“Whoever did this has done great injustice to our county, and to our people. It is something terrible, but we leave everything to God,” Bishop Kimengich said, and gave the assurance that the Catholic Church will not “give up” preaching peace in Elgeyo Marakwet County.

“We won’t give up; we will continue looking for peace,” he said.

Bishop Kimengich, who was forced to cut short his trip to South Africa’s Johannesburg Catholic Archdiocese in South Africa relayed the closeness of the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya, Archbishop Hubertus Van Megen.

The representative of the Holy Father in Kenya, the Bishop said, has been saddened by the death of the young Priest. “He said that justice has to be done for Fr. Allois,” Bishop Kimengich went on to say, relaying the message of Archbishop van Megen, the Dutch-born Nairobi-based Vatican diplomat.