This page is available in:
EN

Ndingi, Raphael S. (Mwana a’Nzeki) (A)

1931-2020
Catholic Church
Kenya

Raphael S. Ndingi

Raphael S. Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki was a Roman Catholic Bishop in Kenya.[1] He served as the Archbishop of the Nairobi Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Kenya during his career. Additionally, he served as the Bishop of Machakos and Nakuru.[2]

Birth, Early Life, and Ordination into Ministry

Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki was born on December 25, 1931, in Myanyani village, Mwala location, Machakos county.[3] He was the last child of Maria Muthoki and Joseph Nzeki Ngila. Paul Muli, Veronica Kavenge, Ann Muluu, and Teresia Katunge were his siblings.[4]

During his early childhood, the Kamba’s had not yet adopted western education as a method of raising children, particularly boys. Their primary occupation was livestock herding. As a result, the government made it essential for each household to volunteer a son to attend school or face a one-cow fee. Mzee Nzeki, Ndingi’s father, sent a son to attend school in order to avoid the fine. However, because this son did not accept the role, Mzee Nzeki offered Ndingi as a substitute in order to avoid the heavy fine of a cow.[5]

Ndingi attended Myanyani Holy Ghost Primary School and afterwards Kabaa. While at Kabaa, a plague struck the area, disrupting learning and forcing the school to close. A large number of students, priests, and nuns were killed. Ndingi miraculously avoided the illness. He finished his education at Etikoni before moving on to Kabaa High School for Forms 1 and 2. Following Kabaa, he attended Kilimambogo Teachers’ College, where he graduated as a P3 teacher in 1950. Young Ndingi taught for a time before enrolling at Kibosho Seminary in Moshi, Tanzania, to study philosophy, and later in Morogoro Senior Seminary for theological studies, where he was ordained as a priest. On January 1, 1961, on the feast of Mary the Mother of God, Archbishop J. J. McCarthy CSSP ordained him as a priest at Kabaa parish.[6] He was the first Kamba priest to be ordained by the Roman Catholic Church.[7]

His services in Kenya and studies abroad

Ndingi was sent to Our Lady of the Visitation Makadara. He started hostels for young people who didn’t have a place to stay in the confusing City of Nairobi. Most of these young people had just moved from the countryside and did not know where to stay. Soon after, Archbishop McCarthy made Ndingi his Education Secretary. The young priest helped get Forms V and VI classes started at Mang’u High School and Loreto High School Limuru.

Ndingi was the Catholic Chaplain at Starehe Boys’ Centre back then, and he worked closely with Geoffrey Griffin, who started Starehe and was its first director. McCarthy got him a scholarship to St. John Fisher College in New York so that he could go to college there. He studied History and Political Science there.[8]

Ordination as a bishop by Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI made him the first Bishop of the Diocese of Machakos as soon as he got back to Kenya. In Uganda in 1969, when the Holy Father made him a Bishop along with several other African Bishops, it was a historic event. Ndingi made a name for himself in the new Diocese by standing up for good African customs and fighting against bad ones. During his time in Machakos, he told off politicians who tried to bribe and force innocent people to vote for them in the 1969 General Election. This is something he will always be remembered for.[9]

His ministry

Ndingi was moved from Masaku to Nakuru, which made a lot of people in Masaku unhappy. Machakos’s loss was Nakuru’s gain. Some of the most memorable things about Mwana ‘a Nzeki in Nakuru are his contributions to agriculture, such as Baraka Farm, drilling boreholes for the people of God to use. Setting up the Diocesan Pastoral Centre and fighting bravely for people who were being mistreated during the well-known tribal clashes.[10]

Ndingi led the people of God in this Archdiocese for ten years. Under his leadership, the number of parishes grew from 80 to more than 100. He helped finance schools and hospitals. Wherever he did his ministry, he put a lot of money into education, training, and jobs.[11] He played an important role in the lives and jobs of many professionals, religious sisters, brothers, priests, and bishops. He ordained 56 priests while he worked at the Archdiocese of Nairobi.[12]

Ndingi was a man who wanted to know the truth and fight for what was right. Because of this, St. John Fisher College gave him a Doctor of Law degree in 1996. The Republic of Kenya also gave him the State Commendation as the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) as a way of thanking him for all he had done for the country.[13]

Ndingi’s small size often led many people to believe that he was weak and could be scared into silence. He was a man who was not afraid to speak against wrongs in society, no matter what they were. His criticisms were strategic and full of wisdom.[14] They were meant to make his audience feel bad about what they were doing wrong without provoking the public against them. Even though he was always busy with church and nation building, he loved his family very much.[15] He was a man who prayed all the time.[16]

Pope Benedict XVI approved his retirement on October 6, 2007, when he turned 75.[17] After he retired, he lived a quiet, peaceful life at the clergy home, where he prayed and had people over, many of whom came to him for advice. Thirteen years after he retired, he went to be with the Lord. On Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in the afternoon, he was buried at Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi.

Conclusion

As the national education secretary, Raphael S. Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki played a very important role in the education field. He wanted a lot of schools to be built and paid for a lot of young men and women to go to school. People say he had a lot of energy. Ndingi was a key player in some of the most important events of our time, like fighting for social justice and for African traditional values to be respected by the highest church leaders in Rome. He also helped the country’s education system grow. Ndingi left an indelible mark on both the Catholic church and Kenya in general.

Musa Ahinga Munde

Notes

  1. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_S._Ndingi_Mwana_a%27Nzeki, (accessed on June 4, 2022).
  2. Catholic Hierarchy, http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bndi.html, (accessed on June 4, 2022).
  3. Esther M., Lit Kenya, https://litkenya.com/retired-catholic-archbishop-ndingi-mwana-nzeki-dies-at-88/, (accessed on June 19, 2022).
  4. Business Today, https://businesstoday.co.ke/cow-fine-archbishop-ndingi-mwana-a-nzeki-school-plague-nuns-priests-dead/, (accessed on June 26, 2022).
  5. Business Today.
  6. Rs Ndingi mwana wa aNzeki foundation, https://archbishopndingifoundation.org/about-us/archbishop-raphael-simon-ndingi-mwanaa-nzeki/, (accessed on June 4, 2022).
  7. Funeral Brochure compiled by the Archdiocese of Nairobi communication, (accessed on June 2, 2022).
  8. Funeral Brochure compiled by the Archdiocese of Nairobi communication.
  9. Funeral Brochure compiled by the Archdiocese of Nairobi communication.
  10. Rs Ndingi mwana wa aNzeki foundation.
  11. Citizen digital, https://www.citizen.digital/news/retired-catholic-archbishop-raphael-ndingi-mwana-a-nzeki-dies-after-long-illness-328529/, (accessed on July 4, 2022).
  12. Funeral Brochure compiled by the Archdiocese of Nairobi communication.
  13. John Allen Jr., Taking The Catholic Pulse, https://cruxnow.com/church-in-africa/2020/03/retired-nairobi-archbishop-ndingi-mwanaa-nzeki-88-dies, (accessed on June 9, 2022).
  14. Wikipedia.
  15. Nancy Agutu, The Star, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-03-31-truth-soldier-loving-man-uhuru-raila-mourn-mwana-anzeki/, (accessed on June 22, 2022).
  16. Joseph Achola Interview.
  17. Cath News, https://cathnews.com/cathnews/61-archive/13362-archbishop-ndingi-retires-thanks-pope, (accessed on July 3, 2022).

Bibliography

Business Today, https://businesstoday.co.ke/cow-fine-archbishop-ndingi-mwana-a-nzeki-school-plague-nuns-priests-dead/, (accessed on June 26, 2022).

Catholic Hierarchy, http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bndi.html, (accessed on June 4, 2022).

Cath News, https://cathnews.com/cathnews/61-archive/13362-archbishop-ndingi-retires-thanks-pope, (accessed on July 3, 2022).

Citizen digital, https://www.citizen.digital/news/retired-catholic-archbishop-raphael-ndingi-mwana-a-nzeki-dies-after-long-illness-328529/, (accessed on July 4, 2022).

Esther M., Lit Kenya, https://litkenya.com/retired-catholic-archbishop-ndingi-mwana-nzeki-dies-at-88/, (accessed on June 19, 2022).

Funeral Brochure compiled by the Archdiocese of Nairobi communication, (accessed on June 2, 2022).

Joseph Achola. Interview, June 30, 2022, Nairobi.

John Allen Jr., Taking The Catholic Pulse, https://cruxnow.com/church-in-africa/2020/03/retired-nairobi-archbishop-ndingi-mwanaa-nzeki-88-dies, (accessed on June 9, 2022).

Nancy Agutu, The Star, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2020-03-31-truth-soldier-loving-man-uhuru-raila-mourn-mwana-anzeki/, (accessed on June 22, 2022).

Rs Ndingi mwana wa aNzeki foundation, https://archbishopndingifoundation.org/about-us/archbishop-raphael-simon-ndingi-mwanaa-nzeki/, (accessed on June 4, 2022).

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_S._Ndingi_Mwana_a%27Nzeki, (accessed on June 4, 2022).

Editor’s Addendum:

This brochure contains the order of the funeral service, a eulogy describing Ndingi’s life, tributes from family and friends, and many photographs.

This biography, received in 2022, was researched and written by Musa Ahinga Munde as an assignment for class CH303 entitled “Survey of the History of African Christianity” under the supervision of lecturer Rev. Allan Muchiri as a requirement for a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology at Africa International University in Nairobi, Kenya.