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Don’t “accept to be left behind”: Nairobi Catholic Archbishop to Parents, Guardians on Digitality, Relations with Gen Z

Sabrine Amboka

By Sabrine Amboka

Nairobi, 13 July, 2025 / 4:43 pm (ACI Africa).

Archbishop Philip Arnold Subira Anyolo of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) in Kenya has cautioned parents and guardians against ignoring digitality.

In his Wednesday, July 9 speech on the annual Prize Giving Day at Holy Innocent Tasia School in his Metropolitan See, Archbishop Anyolo said that embracing digitality enhances intergenerational relations.

“Let us try to learn with the new technology so that we can go abreast with the young generations ... We should not accept to be left behind so that we remain obsolete in the situations that are coming all along,” he said.

The Kenyan Catholic Archbishop urged parents and guardians to create time to be with their children, listening to and encouraging them, and added, “Don’t be afraid to learn from your children. They have the knowledge, but you have the wisdom.”

Effective communication with children is crucial not just in childhood, but also in adulthood, particularly with Generation Z, popularly referred to as Gen Z, who the Catholic Archbishop said need to feel listened to and understood.

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He went on to urge parents and guardians to strive to interpret the meaning of what their children communicate in view of fostering mutual growth in families.

“We have a wonderful gift in our young people in this country,” said the 69-year-old Archbishop who started his Episcopal Ministry in February 1996 as Bishop of Kenya’s Kericho Catholic Diocese.

He cautioned parents and guardians against brutality and underscored the value of guiding by word of mouth toward positive paths and the use of what he described as “settled knowledge.”

“We want to ground their high knowledge on the situations of life as it were and we need to journey with them, to be with them as much as we can and as much as we can to understand them and to learn from them as also they learn from us,” he said.

The Local Ordinary of ADN since his installation in November 2021 added referring to young people, “They are available for us also if we approach them in a way that they will understand that there are some things we have to accompany one another as such.”

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“Learn with them slowly so that you understand them and you can be in the same level of discussions during these times as they are growing,” he told parents and guardians.

Archbishop Anyolo continued, “Let them be tamed and be encouraged and guided through your care, your loving care, and your concern and your patience with them as they grow.”

He also thanked the family of Holy Innocent Tasia School, including the management, the staff, and non-staff members for their “good work” in facilitating formal education at the Catholic learning institution.

Sabrine Amboka

Sabrine Amboka is a Kenyan journalist with a passion for Catholic church communication. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from St. Paul's University in Kenya.

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