Fr. Stallone Michele, imc, Founding padre of Loiyangalani mission

A lodge or a restaurant with a big wooden Cross almost in the middle! For sure this is an unusual place for Crosses, for the latter is normally planted in sacred places such as the Churches, graveyards, etc, for the sake of connecting us with the salvation mystery Jesus accomplished for humanity.

But the story is different in Loiyangalani town, two kilometres East of Lake Turkana, Marsabit County. Here, stands a fifty-four year old wooden Cross planted in the Oasis Lodge and Restaurant. It is of great importance. This old wooden Cross is both symbolically the foundation rock and pillar on which the Loiyangalani Catholic mission is founded and rests upon. Why?

Because it marks the exact place of the execution of Rev. Fr. Stallone Michele, imc.

The late Rev. Fr. Stallone Michele, a Consolata Missionary priest, hailed from Giovinazzo in the large province of Bari, in the Apulia region of Italy. He was born on the 01st September 1921 and ordained a Catholic Priest on the 31st May 1947, four years after having made his first vows. He was thereafter sent to Kenya for his mission.

It was during his missionary work in the Northern Kenya that Fr. Stallone came to Loiyangalani in 1965. The local tales have it that he was the first missionary priest to set foot in this small market town at the onset of the Chalbi desert, next to the then Lake Rudolf. By then he was working in the Baragoi Catholic Mission which was founded in 1952.

“His prime mission in Loiyangalani was to take Christianity to the El-Molo” acerts Mr Edward Lemotou, a native and stauch Christian of Loiyangalani Mission. He was determined to save the souls of this minority group.  Therefore, “he made several visits to them, bringing them not only the Good News but also goodies like changa (beads), tumbako (tabbac) and clothes”. His close and personal relationship with them earned him a nickname “Mete” (the ‘Head’) from the El-Molo, for he was short and big-headed in stature.

Now. On the Friday 19th November 1965, having come from his holidays back home in Giovinazzo village, Fr. Stallone Michele, imc, enthusiastically arrived in Loiyangalani with an additional mission to that of his love and visit to the El-Molo.

This time round, he was sent by the Bishop of Marsabit, His Lordship Carlos Maria Cavallera, imc., just a year after the erection of the Marsabit Diocese from the larger Diocese of Nyeri. His work was to begin a Catholic Mission in Loiyangalani town.

It is worth noting that, several months before the arrival of Fr. Stallone, precisely on 2nd March 1965, His Lordship the Bishop had made a trip to Loiyangalani town courtesy of an invitation by Madame Sorsbie, the owner of the Oasis Lodge Safari Club. It is on this occasion that the Bishop saw the need to open a Catholic Mission in Loiyangalani. He therefore, with the help of Lady Sorsbie who contributed ten thousand Kenyan shillings and an old lorry as indicated in the Bishop's diary, gathered the necessary resources for this noble cause and sent Fr. Stallone Michele to execute the erection of a new Catholic Mission in the Northern Kenya.

This fateful day, the 19th November fifty-four years ago, begun on a high note but ended in sorrow, a low note. 

No sooner had Fr. Stallone arrived by midday, than he went to inspect the proposed sites for the Church, the primary school and the dispensary buildings. He had also ordered the building materials that were to be ferried a day later. In him, indeed was the burning desire to see the Loiyangalani Mission begin and grow!

Rather, the sorrowful part of the day came very fast with the sunset that evening.

There was an attack by the Shiftas , bandits of Somali origin, in the Oasis Lodge Safari Club. The shiftas wanted to kill Mr Poole, a native of Sychelles and the manager of the Oasis Lodge Safari Club. They came for his blood because, Mr Poole was known of killing the livestock of the locals around Loiyangalani. Hence it was a retaliation operation. Unfortunately, at around 9:00 pm, the Shiftas killed both Mr Poole and Fr. Stallone after vandalising and stealing some property of the Lodge. 

Unlucky for Fr. Stallone! He was an innocent victim, for he had a temporary residence in the Oasis Lodge Safari Club so as to start the construction of the Church.

The whole new Diocese mourned! But more so, the Loiyangalani Christians who had hoped to witness this man of God, Mete, bring them Christ closer.

Bishop Cavallera said, “The death of Fr. Stallone is a serious loss for the Diocese of Marsabit and has shocked everybody. Our dear missionary had just returned from Italy; where he had gone to give his farewell to his old parents and had returned with much enthusiasm and full of favour and initiative. The Lord wanted from him the supreme sacrifice of his life while he was on duty for obedience and generosity. This blood will certainly be the most precious and solid cement for the foundation of the new Mission.” Reads an excerpt of Missioni Consolata, January 1966.

The police inspector of Maralal in the company of four other police officers from Baragoi rushed to the scene of crime. They found the body of the slain priest, tied on a chair and lodged with two bullets on his back. But his breviary was the only thing next to him; a physical sign that he must have been saying his vespers on that fateful evening before the ordeal.

He was later buried in Nyeri, Mathari, some hundreds of kilometres far away from the inhabitants he gave his life for.

Indeed his blood drunk by the Loiyangalani soil not only irrigated the inhabitants' faith leading to the ongoing construction of a twenty-thousand capacity Church building, but also made the Kenya Police put up a commanding base in Loiyangalani, hence fostering peace and order to the people.

Today, Loiyangalani boasts of this pious and industrious Consolata missionary who loved them unsparingly. They boast of having a founder of their Church in heaven interceding for them. They boast that their land is a land of martyrdom! This is why in this small town, every 19th November there is a solemn Liturgy of the Eucharist in memory of their hero and father of faith. This Liturgy normally culminates with a solemn procession till the Oasis Lodge where the Late Rev. Fr. Stallone faced his martyrdom.

On the occasion of the 54th anniversary of his death, Rev. Fr. Martin Oluoch Omondi, imc, the Parish Priest of Loiyangalani Catholic Church, in his homily based on the Gospel according to St Mathew 25: 31-46, stated that: “the strong love and faith that Fr. Stallone had that made him come to Loiyangalani, when there was practically nothing on the ground, poor roads, poor means of transport, poor means of communication, no wireless phones, nothing! He believed that there were men and women in Loiyangalani who were hungry and thirsty for the word of God (and Sacraments). He was convinced that they were people spiritually sick and in spiritual prison by the needs of this world; people who needed to be visited so that they too can be satisfied by the knowledge of Christ. His blood, poured in our soil here in Loiyangalani is for us a seed of faith”.

(This article was published in the Consolata Missionaries website.  The link is given below :

https://www.consolata.org/new/index.php/mission/nostridicono/item/2951-fr-stallone-michele-imc-founding-padre-of-loiyangalani-mission )

Sharpening our Souls

“First saints, then missionaries!” This is no doubt one of Blessed Joseph Allamano’s principal mantra. Holiness indeed is a fundamental requirement for a missionary to face the mission work. But sometimes it normally goes down like a low battery after having worked in mission for certain period of time. Hence the missionary’s need for a spiritual exercise, preferably in common as a religious family, cf., Constitution 68, General Directive 68.1.

In fact, there are three traditional annual events that normally bring us together as a Region. These are, the Regional Assembly, the Regional Conference and the Regional Retreat. Therefore, from the 11th November 2019 till the 15th November 2019 forty-three of us from Kenya-Uganda Region gathered in the Bethany House, Sagana for our Annual Regional Retreat.

The theme of the Retreat was: Sharpen your Soul.

The task of helping us sharpen the soul was given to Rev. Fr. Charles Bwalya Chilufya, SJ. He is a Jesuit priest of Zambian origin and currently the Director of The Jesuit Justice and Ecology Network Africa (JENA).

To help us sharpen our souls, Fr. Charles, a part from various biblical texts used extensively the Interior Castles, a book written by St Therese of Avila in 1577. He outlined four major principles from this noble writing of an ordinary nun to provide hope and encouragement during hardship and sufferings which make our souls blunt. These are the Mindset; the Heartset; the Soulset and the Health/Bodyset.

Primo, talking about the Mindset, Fr. Charles, SJ, inspired by the dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus, cf., Jn 3: 1-21, and the histories of the Late Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela(18/07/1918 - 05/12/2013), Bl. Joseph Allamano (21/01/1851 – 16/02/1926), St Francis of Assisi (1181 - 03/10/1226) and St Mother Teresa of Calcuta(27/08/1910 - 05/09/1997), journeyed with us through a thought changing process which is geared towards the production of new imaginations. This, he insisted, is achieved through the following three steps:

First, Self-awareness: a capacity to visualise a new beginning. To achieve this, we must treasure silence in our life. For it is in silence that new way of seeing and doing things are generated. (e.g., the prison period in the life of N. Mandela).

Second, Negative experiences of life: a capacity to grow from challenges or crisis in life. Pain brings an opportunity for growth.

Third, Narration of life: a capacity to read stories and events of life. Since events and stories have meaning and can be interpreted, they excite our imaginations, hence be born again.

Consequently, the mindset helps us to give purpose to our lives. It is here where we live in the capacity of choosing. It focuses on not living with the toxicity of the past negative experiences which condition ourselves; but rather it transforms us, cf., Rom 13 and help us forget about the former things, cf., Is 43: 18-19.

Secundo, speaking of the Heartset, our preacher of the day took us through the episode of the Samaritan Woman, cf., Jn 4: 1-45. To pick up our lives once again, Fr. Charles insisted on having an opportunity minded character rather than the problem minded one. To him, some of us never grab the opportunity God is giving them. We rather always see negativity in everything. It is through the conversation with Jesus that will sharpen ourselves, hence grab the God-given opportunities just as the Samaritan lady did.

To grab the opportunity, the heart must be ready to forgive. Yet forgiveness can never be institutionalised rather it is a gift that comes from on high. He gave an example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 1996 by the South African government to help the victims of the Apartheid. This institutionalisation of the process of reconciliation did not work.

Tertio, on matters Soulset, our preacher told us that this is influenced by the first two, that is, the Mindset and the Heartset. He was inspired by Saint Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth, 1 Cor 2: 12-16. Since we are spiritual beings in a human nature the things God give us are spiritual in nature. In this category, inspiration is very fundamental to growth. An inspired person is a joyful, happy fellow. He engages in life with a positive attitude and sees beauty in life. It is only the word of God that will give that inspiration, cf., Jn 15: 3.

Finally, quarto, on a very lighter tone intertwined by his personal life history, Fr. Charles took us through the fourth aspect; the Health/Bodyset. Here, one has to reclaim back his own life! Since the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we should constantly thank God for the gift of the body by taking good care of it. We shall only take good care of ourselves if we discern the things we are to do going by the table below. 

Urgent and Important

NOT Urgent / VERY Important

Urgent / NOT Important

NOT Urgent / NOT Important

In conclusion, he gave us eight wisdom of the Gospel to help us in life. These are:

Leadership: be a leader with no title like Jesus; your work should be beauty and an art focused on human beings and not things.

Humility: be servant of all

Integrity: be truthful to thyself

Originality: stop competing with others

Professionalism: have plans in life

Daily Rituals: set specific time for specific activities each day

Beatitudes: make them yours, own these wonderful virtues

Recreation: have fun, and take life easy

His parting shot: “Claim back your life, by sharpening your soul”.

(This article was published in the Consolata Missionaries website. See the link below)

https://www.consolata.org/new/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2939:sharpening-our-souls

Want a peaceful North Rift Region? Tame our cultural practices

Relative peace is required for societal stability. We all, therefore, want and even dream of a country that all its citizens despite their voluminous differences, tribe, age, physical appearance, colour, creed, race, civilian or not, level of education, gender, etc., cohabit peacefully. This looks very utopic and unattainable, at least in this our time characterised mostly by various conflicts! But peace is possible. Yet, what have we done so far to come closer in achieving this dream?

The handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Hon. Raila Odinga on March 9th 2018, is a political attempt to make this nation prosper peacefully. I think, since then, we haven’t seen our youth go on streets ready for bloodshed in the name of demonstration. We haven’t seen our property vandalised by the demonstrators. Indeed, we haven’t seen casualties or deaths due to protests! We haven’t seen the police using excessive force on the populace, only in the case of the scoundrel police! But a political move to a peaceful nation isn’t enough, though good. It is just one step ahead to peaceful coexistence.

Yet much of our conflicts are also propelled by some of our cultural practices and beliefs.

Regrettably, that is why, peace, the absence of violence, is far from achievable in Kenya, specifically in the Northern Rift Region, precisely East of Lake Turkana and its environs. Why?

Because, in this region, like some parts of Kenya, some cultural practices and beliefs are catalysts of war and social fear. In fact, for the majority of the inhabitants in this region, political handshake, as a means to peaceful cohabitation, isn’t telling them anything to do with peace. They need a cultural approach to peace building and conflict resolution.

In this pastoralist region, being arid and semi-arid, cultural conflicts are easily generated not only by the presence of both pasture and water, but also by following strictly certain cultural beliefs. While the former, a problem from without, leads to severe life-threatening competition over these scarce but precious resources; the latter, a problem from within, makes the persons involved inhabit uncontrollable urge, mori, to cause chaos.

One would expect that the low human population in these areas should tame such conflicts. Simple geographical logic dictates that since they are few in number, they should peacefully cohabit. But no! Actually, here, the livestock- cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and camels- surpasses the inhabitants both in need and in numbers.  Pushing the owners to a mile further in safe guarding their livestock, even at the expense of other few human lives.

August-September 2019 is a memorable moment. Being in Arapal, a small village East of Mount Kulal and Gatab, a village on top of the same mountain which is basically inhabited by the Samburu people, I witnessed a ceremony of the institution of Moranhood  to 83 youth. This beautiful cultural event takes place only after 10 or 15 years! Hence, I count myself lucky to have witnessed it in my lifetime.

All went well in this ceremony of the rite of passage, until when the initiates, teenage boys facing the knife, came to the oath taking ritual. Which I saw as intrinsically the root cause of various cultural violence in the region. Not that am against the oath taking rites, for I too, live under some oath that I took some ten years ago.

This is what happens.

The initiate, at some point, takes a piece of meat, known as menong, hooks it on his knife and figuratively takes to his mother. He then vows in front of her to never consume any meal seen or cooked by any married woman, not even his mother, so long as he is a moran,  a warrior. And that marks also the sign of gratitude for all that the mother did in raising him.

By the virtue of this vow, the Samburu culture dictates two things. Primo, a moran, if dead, is not worth a burial. The moran’s corpse would be left at the peril of the wild animals especially the hyenas who will consume it. Secundo, a moran ceases to have a domicile. He is a persona non grata in his very home! Henceforth, his legal place is either the fora or wilderness looking after the livestock and ensuring overall safety of the community. Hence, he becomes a wanderer!

What is then, the social consequence of living such kind of a treacherous oath?

I know, this might be the cultural way of inculcating in the moran some basic cultural virtues of trust in independency and self-reliance, which will mature and be put in use in the adulthood. Sounds good!

Alas! The same moran, due to such a vow, may develop identity crisis that may affect his relationship with others in the larger society.

On one hand, the moran will eventually either be a threat to his mother and by extension to other women in the society. A threat to the mother, is a threat to the life of the society; consequently a threat to the peace in the society.

And on the other hand, a moran living with the knowledge that at his death, he won’t be accorded a decent cultural burial, risks considering himself as a lesser person. Henceforward start to threaten others so as to prove that indeed he is worthy in the society. We have witnessed to what extent such threats may go!

Therefore, this section of the oath taking in the institution ceremony of moranhood should be rechecked or revised if not evangelised. After all,  our cultures get modified and modernised with time. This oath actually makes the morans predisposed to quick elimination of others in the society, especially in the name of defending the precious resources- pasture, water and livestock- and culture.

There are indeed various benefits of cultural initiations to various age groups; which include among others perseverance, vigilance, courage, self-esteem, self-sacrifice, etc. It shouldn’t be a form of cultural indoctrination or a school to manufacture warriors. Let us tame such cultural practices and beliefs. Otherwise, we shall never have peace in the North Rift Region of Kenya and the whole nation.