NAIVASHA AUGUST 25, 2017(CISA) – Bishop Cornelius Korir, of the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret has called on the government to dialogue with the striking nurses to end strike.
“It is time you talked to each other to end this nurses strike in our country. Kenyans are dying in hospitals because there is no one to attend to them,” said Bishop Korir.
More than 25,000 nurses have been on strike since June 5 this year, demanding among other things, higher salaries and allowances.
In his homily when he presided over Fr John Kaiser Memorial Mass at Maela Refugee Camp in Naivasha on the theme “IDP’s are Kenyans….Do Justice to Victims of Violence,” Bishop Korir, chairman of the Kenya Conference of the Catholic Bishops-Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, said that the nurses were being inhumane in letting patients die in hospitals.
”Since when did we go this extent of leaving our people die for the sake of money, Fr Kaiser was not Kenyan but he couldn’t let our people die. This is inhumane. We have to renew our efforts to serve the people of Kenya,” said the prelate.
He said that Fr Kaiser, a Mill Hill missionary priest from The United States of America, dedicated his life to serve Kenyans without discrimination.
Fr Kaiser Memorial Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Oballa Ole Owaa of the Catholic Diocese of Ngong and Bishop Joseph Mbatia of the Catholic Diocese of Nyahururu.
Fr John Kaiser was born in Perham, Minnesota in the USA on November 23, 1932.He was ordained in St. Louis for the Mill Hill Fathers in 1964, and was sent to the mission in Kenya the same year.
He worked in Kisii diocese for 20 years and later in Nakuru and Ngong Dioceses.Fr Kaiser while in Ngong worked among displaced persons at Maela IDP Camp. Later in his missionary work, he was transferred to Lolgorian parish-Ngong Diocese in Maasai Land.
On August 24, 2000, Fr Kaiser lifeless body was found at Moredat-Naivasha, along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway. The cause of his death could not be ascertained immediately but later it became clear that he was murdered by unknown assailants.
