September 19th 2013, By HUDSON GUMBIHI
Nairobi convents have been turned
into a house of sexual immorality, a nun has revealed.
The woman of God has revealed for
the first time that priests who are well-connected to John Cardinal Njue, are
sex pests and are preying on nuns everyday.
She told The Nairobian that she
lives in fear of falling into a sex trap.
The Catholic church’s leadership
has neither confirmed or denied allegations that priests and nuns have been
engaging in sex.
Open discussion on sex in the
Catholic Church is almost taboo, yet there is widespread intimacy between
priests and nuns.
A number of priests have
abandoned the celibacy vow, succumbing to the urge of the flesh with nuns being
the principal partners either willingly or through coercion.
It is a close-knit affair, which
has been going on and few dare discuss, save for occasional dramas when priests
either defect or are caught in child-paternity cases.
But beneath the confessions and
exposes of the wayward priests, lies tales of how nuns engage in sex within the
otherwise conservative church known for an uncompromising stance on celibacy.
Men and women who have committed
to serve the Lord, exercise a simply life devoid of marriage, sex and
acquisition of worldly material within the Catholic hierarchy involving the
Pope, cardinals, arch-bishops, ordinary bishops, priests, seminaries and nuns.
The church has an almost a
repressive regime on sexual practices, with those truly committed to spiritual
matters being made to take celibacy and poverty vows.
In Kenya, the celibacy oath is
silently abused. When a few months ago John Karimi from Kirinyaga quit the
church, the Father painted a picture of a church deceiving itself and the
flock. He hinted of deep-rooted sexual activities among priests and nuns.
“I used to make love to these
women. More often than not I would sleep with a woman and the following day on
Sunday I'm at the altar delivering a sermon and giving out sacrament. Sometimes
I would feel so guilty or feel like dying when I thought of the celibacy vows I
took,” he said.
About four months forward, a nun
is living in fear in Nairobi. Reason. She does not want to fall into the sex
trap, allegedly orchestrated by a clique of well-connected priests, claimed to
enjoy the ear of a priest close to Cardinal John Njue.
The priests are said to be
preying on the nuns, employing tactics like using second parties to lure the
sisters or using unregistered mobile phones numbers when conveying “love
message”.
Information pieced together
points to an underground activity, in which the priests and nuns are intimately
connected, but the practice is swept under the carpet, rarely reaching the
attention of Njue.
Father Vincent Wambugu, the
secretary general of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) could
neither deny or confirm the sex allegations saying that he needs accurate
information so as to give an informed response.
“I have no defence to deny
because I have no facts and the church has not discussed such an issue,” he
told The Nairobian. By virtue of his position, Wambugu speaks on behalf of all
Catholics in the country. KCCB was initially known as the Kenyan Episcopal
Conference.
When pressed further whether at
any time there have been cases of priests harassing and engaging in sex with
the nuns, the Father said: “That is a very bad question. I am not aware of that
and may not comment on it conclusively.”
Father Wambugu may not be aware
because ordinarily, those should be on the frontline exposing the rot, are the
same individuals energetically involved in sex.
This was well illustrated by
Karimi when he quit the church embracing marriage.
“I made up my mind to walk out of
the church and have a wife of my own whom I cherish instead of living a
hypocritical life and finally go to hell,” said Karimi in an interview with a
local daily.
Back to the dilemma of the nun
facing the woman of God who sought the help from outside the church in a bid to
establish individuals behind numerous text messages she had been receiving on
her from different numbers.
The sex victim sought the
services of private investigators who unearthed disturbing details of sexual
rivalry in the church.
The investigators traced the
origin of some the message to an active lay woman at a city church. The woman
had been warning the nun to keep off a particular priest the former had an
intimate relationship with.
She was further warned that the
said priest is HIV positive as a result of his “sexual libido and amorous
ways”.
“But it later emerged that this
lay woman was simply attempting to scare the nun because she (lay woman) has an
affair with the priest. Her fears were that nuns are preferred by the priests,
so maybe she did not want her man to stray with my client,” said one of the
investigators.
The private probe also roped in
young girls into the scandal. Their mobile phones were used by priests to pass
messages to their sexual partners, the investigators found out in this single
assignment that took them beyond Nairobi.
The nun confessed to the investigators
that sex was rampant in nunneries scattered across the country. Further, even
non-Catholics are befriending the nuns and engaging them in sex, it emerged.
According to Father Karimi,
celibacy is not practical in the mainstream Church. He consequently opted to
quit rather than continue cheating God after serving for 15 years, claiming 95
per cent of the priests were not celibate.
But the church maintained that
Karimi’s predicament was personal insisting that it needed concrete facts
before discussing the thorny sex issue.
“If we have the facts, we shall
discuss the matter, but now that you have informed me, let us discuss it (sex
scandal) another day,” said Father Wambugu.
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