A Response to Fr. Hans Burgman MHM, Phd

I was reading Fr. Hans Burgman's article here in response to an earlier article on the violence in Kenya early this year penned by another Mill Hill missionary called Dr. Mark Faulkner. i found it quite interesting in the beginning. Fr. Hans MHM, PhD is very well known to many fish members having been a key financier of the health program which collapsed the other year. but another thing I knew him about him was his peculiar choices when it came to appointing leaders and managers in his projects. in fact he quotes one of them whom he calls his old friend , Mr. Paul Olaka.

Fr. Hans has been in Kisumu or around Kisumu for over 50 years and so one supposes that he understands the plight and struggles of the people of the region fairly well. He has heard our confessions, married our couples, buried our dead, baptized our children and so on.

Its therefore with utter shock and disappointment that i read his comments on the violence which i quote verbatim here below:


"... the church can be a good nation builder. Our parish of St. Joseph is an example. Every Sunday morning we have three Masses: the first in dholuo, the second in English, the third in Kiswahili. All of them are full, in all of them the Luo, the Luya, the Teso, the Kisii, the Nandi, the Kikuyu and the Kamba mix, singing each others’ songs, and having their children dance together in the processions. Or, that is how it was. Now the “strangers” have been chased away with extreme violence. Not because of a pernicious colonial legacy, but because the strangers were better traders, or because they occupied “our” land..."



to say i find that statement unfortunate is to understate my utter disgust. Fr. Hans by my estimation has grossly trivialized the issues at hand. terming them simply as mere jealousy of a people inferior to others in trade. he ignores the glaring anomalies in the vote counting. the historical injustices of land occupation, the tribalism in places of work and even in the church itself. I feel bad that a man who has aged gracefully among the people has failed to grasp such simple and direct issues. in fact its disturbing that the priest feels that tribal cohesion can be brought about by simply singing and dancing in church. he does not take into consideration what those choir members feel when they see their bright sons and daughters who fail to get employment due to their tribe. does Fr. Hans think we dont see it when people who were academic dwarfs pass us by ,get the jobs and the strategic courses just because of their tribe or does he think we are all so blind. But maybe Fr. Hans choice of friends can explain it. maybe he doesn't meet people who tell him the truth or who challenge his ideas. I have missed severally opportunities just because my name suggested i was Luo. some of the people who denied me these chances were my colleagues in that same church that Fr. Hans mentions, i was with them in the church prayer groups, reflections and so on. i also sung and danced with them.

I feel bad about this statement in the MHM website and I wish I could comment on it so that Hans gets to know what i feel about it.

I strongly feel that we all need to live and let live in Kenya but we wont be able to do it if some people feel that they are hard-wired to succeed while others are genetically inferior.