Nakuru priest who died in church laid to rest

 

The priest collapsed while conducting mass (Photo: Kioko wa Kivandi).

A priest of the Catholic Diocese of Nakuru who died while conducting mass was laid to rest on Friday November 13. Fr. Patrick Kuria Migwi collapsed last Sunday November 8 at the D.C.K parish where he has been working since 2011. He died of a cardiac arrest.

On Friday, Christians from his parish came in large numbers to bid him farewell as church officials led by the Diocesan head, Bishop Maurice Makumba urged them not to speculate on how the priest had suddenly died.

"The acts of God are a mystery and when we sometimes try to unpuzzle them we end up in lamentations," said the Bishop.

"Let us stop asking God questions he cannot answer because he will not answer. God's master plan must be brought to completion," he said.

The late Fr. Migwi was a priest at DCK parish, Naivasha (Photo: Kioko wa Kivandi).

 The late priest was born in June 1964 and began his education in 1973. He was ordained a deacon and a priest in 1995. He worked in several parishes including Holy Spirit Gilgil, St. Peter's Kaptere and St. Monica in Nakuru's Section 58.

A relative of the late priest said all was well with them since "God had called him while at the altar, that's great."

Rev. Fredrick Mwaura who is a priest with the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) even compared his death to the ascension of Jesus saying the Christians who were present as the priest was dying were "like the apostles who witnessed Jesus being called to heaven."

He had died in the right place he said.

"Let us also pray so that even us, as God will be calling us, we will be found in the right places," a message that was also stressed by Bishop Makumba.

"He died in the Church, in the presence of Christ and in there, there's no death," said the Bishop who is a former class mate of the late priest.

Apparently the late Fr. Migwi came from a 'God serving family'. His father was a Catechist just as is one of his brothers while another one is a priest.

His fellow priests represented by their Chairperson Fr. Cleophas Oseso eulogized him as a man of few words.

Among his nicknames was the name 'Whispers' (Photo: Kioko wa Kivandi).

 "He used to be very quiet. He only talked when he needed to," said Fr. Oseso who also gave a list of the nicknames they called the late priest among them the name 'Whispers'.

"He liked peace, he liked having friends, he never missed any of our meetings as priests, he never liked anything that could stress him," he said of him.

According to the American Heart Association, "a cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function." It may occur to someone who may or may not have had a history of a heart disease and can lead to death when the heart stops functioning properly.

But even as this may be scientific truth, the dying of the priest in front of his flock is an act that might remain with them for long.

"May you grant your servant Fr. Kuria eternal life," one of the faithful who attended the requiem mass prayed on Friday.