'The Kiltegan presence in Kenya expanded rapidly during the late 1950s and early 1960s'

'The Kiltegan presence in Kenya expanded rapidly during the late 1950s and early 1960s'

Frank remembers life in Kenya.

Frank Gaynor

Trinity College Dublin

1963

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Frank Gaynor

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Life Story

Kenya, Africa

1960's

The Kiltegan presence in Kenya expanded rapidly during the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1963 there were about 40 Kiltegan priests in the Diocese of Eldoret at any one time. They were all Irish. At that time the diocese stretched from Lake Turkana in the north to Lake Naivasha in the south, a distance of about 800 miles. It was subsequently divided into four dioceses. During my time the Bishop of Eldoret was JB Houlihan. He was a formidable Kerryman who was both feared and loved by those who had any dealings with him. He had been a great driving force in the building of houses, churches, schools and hospitals in the diocese. He liked to have as many doors as he could fit into any building he supervised. Our living room at Matunda had four doors. Fr. Ted moved to Matunda from Baringo, where he had been managing a technical school. He soon went to work on eliminating one of the doors. JBH protested by entering and leaving through one of the windows on his subsequent visits. Men called regularly in the hope of getting work on some building project. One Saturday morning two men arrived at Matunda offering to break stones with hammers. They had walked 35 miles from Eldoret. JBH received some financial support from Rome as long as he was constructing churches. When he decided to build a hospital Rome was not interested. To overcome this inconvenience, as I heard it, JBH applied to Rome for funding for extensions to a number of churches he had built, including the church at Matunda. This extra funding went some way towards the construction of a much needed hospital in Eldama Ravine. On one occasion a delegation arrived from Rome to inspect the recent extensions to the church. After an hour with JBH the delegation was happy to move on to calmer waters. I got along very well with JBH and enjoyed his distinctive sense of humour. Once he asked me to join him on a visit to Turkana. He had been one of the first to alert the outside world to the famine in that region in 1960. A few miles north of Kitale we seemed to run out of road. For the next 200 miles or more we followed a sand track through semi - desert, along the Kenya/Uganda border, until we reached the mission station at Lodwar. At the nearby famine relief camps I was surrounded by children who were fascinated by both the hair on my arms and the watch on my wrist. They took turns at pulling gently at the hair and then listening to the ticking of the watch. Food rations, mostly wheat, were distributed while I was there. The wheat, donated by the US, had come by ship to Mombasa, by rail to Eldoret and by road to Turkana. I had worked with Vincent in moving some of the bags from the railhead in Eldoret to a storehouse in Kitale. It was interesting to see it reach its final destination. Most of the men I saw in Turkana were naked. They seemed to have very few personal possessions. Each man had a spear for hunting and a small wooden stool that he used as a seat during the day and as a pillow at night. The women had lots of colourful beads around their necks and a piece of cloth or skin around their waists. The children were mostly naked. One person who was talking about a boys' race at the local school mentioned that, as the boys came sprinting along the final stretch, the dangling bits looked like windscreen wipers on a fast setting. I was fascinated watching Fr. Conor, who was stationed in Lodwar, say mass with the minimum of everything except people. To protect him from the blazing sun there was a grass roof supported by narrow crooked poles. In an effort to comply with tradition he lit candles at his makeshift altar. I was relieved when the wind blew out the candles as I feared that the roof might catch fire. Conor struggled a bit with the Turkana language yet his congregation appreciated his every word and every move. During mass my thoughts went back to a September afternoon a few years earlier when Conor, as a teenager, played hurling for Tipperary on all - Ireland final day in Croke Park. The rains came twice a year, with the short rains in November and the long rains around March and April. When the rain came it always started pouring down at exactly 2pm. At 2pm I would be entering a classroom for the afternoon lessons. It would be dry as I walked to the school. By the time I had taken up my position in front of the class my voice would be drowned out by the noise of the rain crashing onto the corrugated iron roof. The dirt roads then turned to red mud and with only our Ford Anglia to call on it became difficult for us to reach the main road. Once during the short rains I travelled with JBH to Baringo for a confirmation ceremony. This journey took us across Eldoret Plateau, through the town of Eldoret, down the escarpement at Iten and into the Rift Valley. Baringo Catholic Mission was situated on an elevated ridge in the middle of the Rift Valley. From a few miles outside Eldoret we were on dirt road. Due to the rain parts of the road were wet and muddy. The escarpment was treacherous. A number of times the car left the road. Most times we got assistance from locals. Once we had to struggle on our own for a couple of hours. We would not have made it without the considerable muscle power of JBH. Baringo Mission was very isolated. When we arrived Fr. Barry, obviously a last - minute - man, was slashing a path through tall grass to enable the bishop to reach the cemetery where he would later bless graves. While JBH and Barry discussed arrangements for the confirmation I wandered off to explore the surrounding area. I had almost convinced myself that I was one of the first white men to reach these parts when I came on a disused golf course. I later learned that during the Mau Mau struggle in the 1950s the British had established a police post in Baringo. As we travelled back across the Rift Valley we could travel for miles without seeing anyone but as soon as we stopped for a break dozens of children would come running out of the bush.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)