Community representative
COMBONI POSTULANCY
ABOUT US
Brief History
- KENYA is an equatorial country located in East Africa, its terrain rises from a low coastal plain on the Indian Ocean
to mountains and plateaus at its center.
Most of its citizens are living in the highlands and
more so major cities i.e. Kisumu, Nakuru, Mombasa,
and majority in Nairobi which also serves as the Capital city. Holding senior administration offices of the
government sitting at an altitude of 5,500 feet above
sea level.
Kenya, comprises a total area of 582 646 km2 and a total coastline of 536 km. Kenya is thus the 23rd biggest country in Africa and in terms of area ranked 48th worldwide. It is bisected horizontally by the Equator and vertically by longitude 38' E, Kenya is bordered to the north by South Sudan and Ethiopia, to the east by Somalia and the Indian Ocean, to the south by Tanzania, and to the west by Lake Victoria and Uganda.
It has a current population of 57,361,588 as of July 2023, based on World meter elaboration of the latest United Nations data. It is a multi ethnic community divided into 4 major groups. That is, Bantu, Nilotes, Cushite's and Asian community. It is comprised of 44 language groups. Kenya, was colonized by the British. It attained her independence on 12th December 1963 and the following year, on 1st June of 1964, it became a Republic with the Late Jomo Kenyatta as the first president.
Economically, Kenya has an agricultural economy being its dominant source of revenue; its main exports being coffee, tea & petroleum products. Tourism is also a key figure in its economy together with textiles, chemicals and vehicle assembly marking an icon in the society. Apart from all that it is also rich in mineral salts and deposits such as Soda Ash, Flour spar, Salt and Gold which also boosts the economy. Talking of Agriculture Kenya has a diverse of it whereby: Highland areas produces maize, coffee, tea & sisal, while Low lands areas produces coconuts, cashew nuts & cotton just to mention but a few. -
Politically, After the death of Kenyatta -the first president of Kenya in 1978, there arose a bloody protest against his successor
the late Daniel Arap Moi in 1982.
It lasted to an extend of a military coup the main reason being need for a multiparty system in the country.
In December 1991 Moi agreed to end Single party politics,
as a result of pressure from the forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) supported by western aid donations.
However, Moi's regime was brought to an end by the unity of many opposition parties that formed NARC who supported Kibaki against Uhuru Kenyatta Moi's preference. This promoted a new era of multiparty & voice of opposition. In August 2010 a referendum was held and the new constitution got an overwhelming support of 65%. Later on the same month on the 27th it was promulgated. The 4th president Uhuru Kenyatta, did a lot in infrastructures especially the roads, electrification, Huduma centers that brought services closer to the people, in the area of health, education plus many others. Last year August 2022, we had our general elections in which Mr. William Ruto became the 5th president of Kenya in a highly contested elections. His government is facing a lot of challenges economically. The opposition have not accepted the results and negotiations are still going on because it has resulted in many demonstrations.
With the new constitution, there was an introduction of the devolution government which has promoted accessibility of government services across its borders without concentrating them at the Capital city. This is clearly depicted from its restructuring from 8 provinces to 47 counties. This has been beneficial to citizens as job opportunities were increased in the government. To conclude we can indeed deduce that Kenya is a country of hidden treasure. This is seen from its richness of divers cultures and resources both natural and manmade across all its borders. God bless Kenya, Oriomuno, Erokamano, Serenauo kullazya muvwera. - South Sudan is a landlocked country in North-East of Africa; it is bordered to the east by Ethiopia, to the north by Sudan, to the west by the Central Africa Republic, to the south-west by Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south by Uganda, and to the south-east by Kenya.
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Currently, it is divided into ten (10) states which were created out of the three regions;
Bahr el Ghazal region, Upper Nile region and Equatorial region. The states are further divided into 86 counties.
It has a population of 12 million, mostly of the Nilotic peoples, and it is demographically among the youngest nations in the world,
with roughly half under 18 years old. The majority of inhabitants adhere to Christianity, or various indigenous faiths.
South Sudan got its independence from Sudan on 9th July 2011 following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which was signed in Naivasha-Kenya in 2005, and a referendum for selfdetermination which was held from the 9th to the 15th of January 2011. South Sudan is incredibly diverse with 64 different ethnic groups and each of these ethnic groups has many traditional, cultural, social norms, unique lifestyle and linguistic differences.
South Sudan experiences tropical climate that is characterized by two seasons that is wet and dry seasons. The most rainfall is seen between May and October, but the rainy season can commence in April and extend until November. On average, may is the wettest month. The White Nile, a tributary of the Nile flows north through the country.
SOUTH SUDAN FLAG
It's the major geographical feature of the country and supports agriculture and large wild animal populations. The people do livestock farming, small scale growing of cash crops and subsistence crops for human consumption such as groundnuts, sorghum, maize and millet.
South Sudan is a country with great natural resources such as gold, copper, uranium among others. In addition to that, there is also precious deposits of oil, however, due to the political upheavals the nation did not get the chance to open industrial sectors in order to stimulate both rural and urban development so as to generate employment opportunities, increase food productivity, provide government institutions with new and sustainable sources of revenue and help diversify the economy of the country.
The Comboni Missionaries are almost in all the Dioceses in the country from the beginning up to date and their work has been felt in its history. -
The Comboni Missionaries first arrived in Kenya in August 1972 in Tartar parish (West Pokot).
The main reason for opening up missions in Kenya was due to instability in Uganda during the reign of
Gen. Idi Amin Dada and the expulsion of some Comboni missionaries from Uganda. Currently the Comboni Missionaries are present in five Dioceses in Kenya:
Marsabit, Lodwar, Kitale, Nairobi and Ngong.
The Postulancy is situated in Ongata Rongai (Ngong diocese). This is a booming town of small businesses; it is located at around 25 km. away from Nairobi City centre. In recent years, part of middle-class people have moved from the big city to Ongata Rongai., in this town one can see reproduced in smaller scale the contradictions of Nairobi: beautiful and luxurious flats and the slums of Kware, the extremely rich living side by side with the poor, different religions rubbing each other's shoulders and the melting pot of diverse ethnic groups coming from different parts of the Country and of Africa especially from South Sudan.
The Postulancy started in 1983. It was built within the premises of St. Mary's Catholic parish, which was a Comboni parish till 2007 when it was handed over to the Diocese. In 25th September, 2015, the New Comboni House postulancy was relocated to an area which falls under Fatima Catholic Parish still within Rongai. This new postulancy is jointly co-owned by the provinces of Kenya and Southern Sudan. Since its inception more than 40 people who received their formation in this Postulancy have become Comboni missionaries.
Different formators who have worked here are; Fr. Mario Porto, Fr. A. Solda, Fr. A. Schneider, Fr. Tomas Herreros, Fr. Romeo Di Berti, Fr. Francisco Munguia, Fr. Mariano Tibaldo, Fr. Jesus Aranda, Fr. Bosco Sule Mawa, Fr. Daniel Villaverde, Fr. Jesus Lobato, Fr. Eutiquio Mula Jr, Fr. Andrew Wanjohi, Fr. Phillip Andruga , Fr. Joseph Ngumba Lelo. and currently Fr. Lauro Betancourt Garcia and Fr. David Khayesi Ahiro.
When St. Daniel Comboni founded the Institute for Africa in June 1867, he saw in vocations a great blessing from God to boost his pastoral work in Africa. "Aware of the special difficulties of the missionary career" (Aldo Gilli, Daniel Comboni, The Man and His Message, p.105). His great concern was to prepare future missionaries. In this perspective he prepared and wrote the Rules for the candidates who wanted to consecrate their life to the preaching of the Good News (1871); He wanted Holy Apostles to be formed for the mission Gilli, p. 107
The Congregation of Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, in the same spirit of the founder "welcomes with gratitude those whom the Lord of the harvest calls to be apostles and heralds of the Good news" (Rule of Life n. 80) and gives particular importance to their formation. The Congregation pays special attention to the formation stage called Postulancy, being this phase one of the most important of formation. In this stage the candidate, with the help of the formators, is invited to test the integrity and motivations of his call. The finality of the Postulancy is that the postulant should achieve: an initial identity with the Comboni family (Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis et Studiorum, n. 273).
Therefore, its principal objective is to facilitate, in the postulant,
a free atmosphere that promotes in the postulant an attitude of responsibility so as to make a mature choice to join the Comboni Noviciate. (RL 91)
Initial identity with the Comboni Family means that the candidate is ready:
1. To follow Christ for the kingdom by means of the Evangelic Counsels.
2. To choose the mission "Ad Gentes" as the reason of his very life.
3. To choose the Comboni Institute as a community identifying himself with its Charism, its Style of Life and Apostolic Methodology. (RFIS 273)
Specific objectives of the Postulancy are
a) The acceptance by the postulant of his vocation and the desire to remain with Christ.
b) To accept the Mission as his vocation and live it with the interest for and in solidarity with the poor and most abandoned people.
c) To have a special interest and the desire to know and encounter Comboni "as a man of the Church,
apostle and prophet of Africa".
d) To have clear knowledge of the Institute and the spiritual charism of the Missionary Institute. (RFIS n. 274-277).
Formation is not an easy work it requires responsibility, perseverance and great spirit of enthusiasm
on the postulant's part.
For those reasons, the means to acquire a good, clear and sincere decisions are
1) Human maturity.
2) Christian maturity.
3) Growth in one's vocational identification (RFIS nos. 279-302).
Supposing that the postulants have the aims of their process of formation clear,
the formators will use all the adequate means to foster the above mentioned aims and goals. These are the essential points of what the process of formation in our Comboni Postulancy at Ongata Rongai should be. It is, therefore,
the congregation's wishes that the postulants live in a peaceful and proper atmosphere so as to facilitate the postulants' great decision,
which will mark their lives.
BRIEF HISTORY OF KENYA
BRIEF HISTORY OF SOUTH SUDAN
COMBONI (MCCJ) + POSTULANCY
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