This year, one of the last pioneers in Kenya, Protopresbyter Benjamin Kiptalam Rotich (1926-2022), slept in the Lord. The funeral service was conducted in an atmosphere of deep emotion. When I think of the early workers of the Gospel and Orthodoxy, I wonder under which conditions they worked and struggled when, even today, we have to deal with numerous difficulties and make superhuman efforts to fulfill our mission.
As we have already noted before, all this renewal effort began in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and heroism, as it was the first time the Matins service was performed and the beginning of this missionary quest around the 1930s. Those first missionaries were real fighters armed with fervent zeal and the certainty that they had discovered true faith and came to know the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ and the Apostles and those great Fathers of the glorious period of the Ecumenical Councils.
It was from Uganda that the first hopeful messages arrived. The pioneers there were Spartas Reubem Mukasa (late Bishop Christopher of Niloupolis) and Fr. Obadiah Bassajjikitalo, and in Kenya, Fr. George Gathuna (late Bishop of Nitria). Fr. Obadiah Bassajjikitalo would come from Uganda in order to evangelize the Kenyans. He traveled all over the territory of Western Kenya then which was right on the border of his country and catechized and baptized the first Orthodox Christians of the Nandi and Luhya tribes. The seed of Orthodoxy was planted from these first baptisms.
One of the first to be baptized was Benjamin from the small village of Siepterit near the center of the area, where the first permanent church was eventually built. Our young man was born around 1926 and then undertook, with the little education he had, to catechize himself and try to bring others into the field of God, i.e., the One and Indivisible Church. After completing all the local customs and traditions of his tribe in 1945, he performed circumcision. In 1953 he got married to Zipora and had 7 children, who eventually had 26 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren. A large, noble and blessed family, since everyone followed in their fathers’ footsteps and became Orthodox Christians.
When Benjamin was baptized by Fr. Obadiah around 1962, we had the establishment of the Holy Diocese of Kenya and Irinoupolis with Metropolitan Nicholas being first at the helm, later Patriarch of Alexandria. It was then that the first Theological Seminary operated, that of St.Paul ‘s in Kakira, on the outskirts of Nairobi.
There, he was able to get the essential liturgical as well as pastoral knowledge that a priest needs in order to be able to serve properly. When he had completed this training, he was ordained deacon and elder by the then Metropolitan Nicodemus and undertook a truly missionary work, since there were not enough priests yet. In all areas of the Nandi tribe, where today there are beautiful and beauteous churches, he would perform the sacred services under trees or mud huts. When he was ready, he served in various parishes in the area. He also worked in several posts in order to support his family.
I personally met him in January 1982 at our Orthodox Patriarchal School along with priests of all other tribes. What impressed me from that first meeting and then on my other missionary journeys to the Nandi Region, is that he walked barefoot. When he finally got sick and could not move anymore, his first son called me to pray and perform the Holy Unction. Then I asked him why he walked barefoot. At that time there were no means of communication, and they were forced to travel huge distances. His shoes were easily damaged and he had to buy new ones in a short time. That’s how he found this solution! He decided to remove the shoes for financial reasons and to walk around barefoot!
On 17 January, 2022, I visited him and we prayed together for the last time without knowing that he would die in two days.
† Makarios of Nairobi
