Archbishop Muhatia Calls for Grassroots Support to Sustain Catholic Health and Development Projects

Maurice Muhatia Makumba — Archbishop of Kisumu and Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops — called on the faithful to sustain their grassroots support for diocesan development projects and health programmes. For those of us in Catholic healthcare, the moment is a reminder that the mission we share at the bedside is sustained by something older and wider than any single clinic: the patient, generational investment of a community that sees its own institutions as family.

Three thousand faithful, one shared table

This was the third luncheon of its kind, and by the Mirror's account it drew an extraordinary response: more than three thousand lay faithful gathered alongside clergy and religious. Archbishop Muhatia framed the turnout as evidence of what becomes possible when a community is genuinely invested in its own future, telling those present that the people supporting these projects are not outsiders but part of the family, and that is what makes the work sustainable.

He pointed specifically to Small Christian Communities as a foundational structure of the Archdiocese, noting that the Church's development depends not only on financial capacity but on the willingness of the faithful to give in support of the mission. It is a pattern we recognise in our own ministry of presence — the volunteers who bring communion, the parish nurses who coordinate with our wards, the small groups who hold the whole thing together when staffing is thin and budgets are tighter still.

Rebuilding Ukweli for the next generation

The other headline from the luncheon was a concrete plan for the Ukweli Pastoral Centre itself, a facility built in the 1980s that has served the Archdiocese for decades but now needs serious investment to meet the demands of the present generation. Archbishop Muhatia outlined a three-phase modernisation:

• Phase one: construction of an accommodation facility
• Phase two: development of conferencing facilities
• Phase three: further work around the existing church and chapel

He told the gathering that the Archdiocese wants to move quickly, aiming to complete the remaining slabs and the roof before the end of the year so that finishing work can begin in the new year. Much of the funding, he noted, has come from savings built up through previous contributions rather than borrowed money — a detail that speaks to the long view this community has chosen to take.

Why this matters for our calling

For Catholic nurses, none of this is distant geography. The development projects the Archbishop is rallying around include health programmes that touch the same patients we serve — mothers in rural Kisumu, families seeking care they cannot easily afford, elders whose human dignity depends on a Church that continues to show up. When the Archdiocese invests in pastoral infrastructure, it is also investing in the social fabric that makes our clinical work possible.

Archbishop Muhatia also commended the continued growth of the Archdiocese's Family Days initiative, which was begun under his predecessor Archbishop Philip Anyolo, now Archbishop of Nairobi. According to the Catholic Mirror's reporting, contributions to the most recent Family Day campaign reached Sh97 million, with financial reports shared at the deanery level and a consolidated report expected at the Archdiocesan Family Day. Transparency at that scale is rare, and it deserves to be noticed by anyone who has ever had to account for where the money actually went.

What to watch

We will be following whether the structural work at Ukweli clears its end-of-year target, and how the Family Day model continues to evolve under Archbishop Muhatia's leadership. For those of us walking alongside patients and parishes alike, the lesson he offered his own people is the same one we keep relearning in our own corridors: this work is sustainable only because we choose, again and again, to be part of the family that builds it.