Archbishop John Njue becomes Kenya’s second Cardinal, four years after the death of his predecessor Maurice Cardinal Otunga.

Archbishop Njue, the current chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, is one of the widely known clerics in the religious circles.

The 63-year-old Njue has made a name in Kenya for being outspoken on various issues ranging from morality, politics, religion to family relations.

He has been considered as one of the ardent defenders of human rights, always striving to protect what is just and standing against injustices in society.

His journey to priesthood began in a little known village of Kirari in Mukangu sub-location in Embu District.

Cardinal Njue was born in 1944, to Mr Joseph Nyaga Kibariki and Monica Ngima Nyaga. 

He was baptised four years later at Kevote Catholic Church.

He began his school life during the height of the emergency period in 1952, when the British colonial government resorted to brutal force to stump the Mau Mau rebellion and other insurgencies that were threatening their rule.

Cardinal Njue survived the emergency period and in 1959, he moved to Kyaweru Nguviu intermediate school where he continued with his education till the end of 1960.

Since childhood, his noble dream had been to join priesthood. 

According to Cardinal Njue, he owes the realisation of his dream to teacher Nazario Mvungu and a renowned catechist Matteo. 

However, Cardinal Njue, the successor of retired archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki’s, might not take over his duties at the archdiocese of Nairobi before December this year.

The former co-adjutor of Nyeri archdiocese and apostolic administrator of Murang’a diocese, will need “a bull” (an official letter of appointment from the Vatican written by the Pope Benedict XVI).

It is after the receipt of the “bull” that he will be installed at a public function preceded by a Eucharistic celebration. 

The Pope’s envoy, Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin, in his capacity as the coordinator of the Catholic church in Kenya, has the mandate to preside over installations of bishops and archbishops in absence of a Cardinal.

According to an official from the Nunciature, what has taken place so far “was only an appointment made orally by the Pope, but that announcement has got to be put in writing. 

“It is like issuing a degree authorising and mandating Archbishop Njue to take over the archdiocese of Nairobi,” the official said.

Archbishop Ndingi’s private secretary for the last six years, Fr Maloba Wesonga, said the internal hand over arrangements would probably take three months. 

“An installation committee needs to be set up and it is this committee which will make all the installation arrangements, including choosing an appropriate venue and date,” the priest said. 

Cardinal Njue will be the fifth bishop at the helm of the archdiocese of Nairobi in post independence era. 

Bishop John Heffernan (1883-1966) was the first post independence bishop of Nairobi, followed by Archbishop John Joseph MacCarthy (1896-1983). 

Are autonomous

The first African to administer Nairobi was the Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga (1923-2003) before Archbishop Ndingi succeeded him in June 21, 1997.

The four archdioceses and 23 dioceses in Kenya are autonomous, but the archbishop of Nairobi appears to speak for all due to the fact that Nairobi, the capital city where major government decisions are made, is under its jurisdiction.

Cardinal Njue will have an added advantage by virtue of his current post, as chairman of KEC. 

There are three other dioceses which do not have a bishop and are under apostolic administration. They include Murang’a, from where bishop Peter Kihara was transferred and posted to Marsabit and Kitui, from where archbishop Boniface Lele was transferred and posted to Mombasa upon the retirement of archbishop John Njenga two years ago.

During his 34 years of service in the church, Cardinal Njue has been elected three times as KEC chairman. 

Cardinal Njue has been without a substantive diocese to administer.

He has been like “a reserve player on the bench in a football match,” one to whom the church turned to fill a vacancy while looking for a suitable candidate to appoint. 

This time, he happened to be the suitable candidate to fill the vacuum which Archbishop Ndingi left when he announced his retirement in accordance to the church’s Canon Law 401. 

Second term

It was during archbishop’s second term as KEC (still then bishop of Embu) that the fiery and outspoken Mill Hill Missionary priest of Ngong’s Lolgorian parish, Father John Anthony Kaiser, was murdered in mysterious circumstances at Morendat junction on Naivasha-Nakuru road. 

Cardinal Njue and the former Pope’s envoy to Kenya archbishop Giovani Tonucci, strongly condemned the killing of Fr Kaiser’s and called on the Government to bring the culprits to book.

Carinal Njue holds a Masters degree in Philosophy from the Urbaniana University, Rome.

He has also worked in various capacities in the church starting as a parish priest in Kariakomu Parish in Meru before he began his career as an instructor and lecturer in the country’s priests’ formation institutions in 1975.

Cardinal Njue was a Constitution of Kenya Review Commission national delegate at the Bomas of Kenya, representing the Catholic church in 2004 after archbishop John Njenga retired.

On his part, Archbishop Ndingi leaves the active administration in the church after a record service of 46 years.

He served one year in Machakos and 25 years, or a silver jubilee, in Nakuru diocese. 

When Cardinal Maurice Otunga’s health rapidly deteriorated, Pope John Paul II appointed Ndingi the co-adjutor of the archdiocese of Nairobi for one year. 

Archbishop Ndingi served as the substantive archbishop of Nairobi for 10 years from 1997 to 2007.

In 2000, when the work load of the church in Nairobi became heavier, again Pope John Paul II, who visited Kenya twice (1985 and 1995), appointed two auxiliary bishops; namely David Kamau and Anthony Ireri Mukobo to assist run Nairobi.

The burning down

In 2005, bishop Mukobo was appointed the apostolic administrator of Isiolo vicariate.

During his tenure, Archbishop Ndingi witnessed the burning down of Our Lady Queen of Peace in South C in early 2002, and its historic re-built in 13 months at a cost of Sh55 million.

Archbishop Ndingi coordinated the funeral and burial arrangements of Cardinal Otunga in 2003 and his re-burial at Resurrection Gardens in 2005. 

Although archbishop Ndingi had attained the mandatory retirement age of 75, he had continued to run the affairs of the church until the Pope accepted his December 25 resignation only last week.