Where criminals have no respect for the Church

Emily Milgo, a neighbor to Kapoloin church. Unknown assailants pelted her with stones after she ventured out to investigate commotion.

Ideally, everybody is expected to revere church as the house of God and a place of worship.

However, this is not the case for Kapoloin Catholic Parish, where incidents of sacrilege have been witnessed.

The priest in charge, Fr Valleyves Makhola, said in August, an unknown person desecrated the parish in Ainamoi Constituency by dumping faeces at the church’s doorsteps.

"Thieves have also been stealing maize from the church's farm. In another incident, thieves broke into the church and stole a public address system,” Fr Makhola said.

And on Saturday night, unknown people sneaked into the church compound and slashed four cows, two sheep and two goats to death.

Faithful arrived for a Sunday service only to find carcasses strewn all over. They had deep machete cuts.

Emily Milgo, whose land borders the church, said she heard commotion around midnight.

“I heard the cows mooing and sheep and goats bleating. I went to find out what was happening when a group of people started hurling stones at me. I fled," she said.

Fr Makhola asked the local community help in protecting church property.

“As the church prays for criminals to repent and change their ways, we ask the local community to step in so we don’t suffer more attacks,” he said.

“The killing of the animals is a clear sign no one, including church leaders, is safe. Something has to be done. We call on security agencies to investigate the incidents, arrest and prosecute the culprits,” said Fr Makhola.

Kericho East OCPD Justus Kitetu said investigations were ongoing. “We have established that even though the church did not have a security guard by the time the animals were killed, there was a watchman who had been sent home. That is one of the leads we are following," he said.

Kapsaos MCA Erick Koskei called on residents to volunteer information to enable the police to arrest suspects. “We must demonstrate to missionaries sent to us we are good people by surrendering the criminals in our midst,” he said.