Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Machakos, Kenya.

In 1984 a number of girls, who came from good Catholic families mostly in the mission of Mbiuni, diocese of Machakos, Kenya, entered the Monastery of the Most Pure Conception in Utrera (Seville), Spain. These girls were accepted with the intention of founding a Carmel in Kenya after their formation in the monastic and cloistered Carmelite way of life. They were encouraged and supported by their parish priest, Fr. Joseph Kallely, CMI, and their bishop, Urbanus J. Kioko. Both pastors were convinced of the value of the contemplative life and dreamt of having a convent of cloistered Carmelite nuns in the diocese.

The Carmelite cloistered nuns at the monastery of
Utrera (Spain) before they left to Machakos in Kenya.

The dream was realised fifteen years later, on 10 October 1999. The community was made up of five Kenyan and two Spanish nuns (from the monastery of Utrera): Sr. Magdalena Medrano Jiménez, Sr. Margarita Vargas Arrabal, Sr. Winifred Katunge Mbui, Sr. Christine Syombua Mbindyo, Sr. Grace Njoki Mbugua, Sr. Damaris Mbinya Matheka, and Sr. Francisca Mwikali Nzomo. They were formally received by bishop Urbanus in the Cathedral of Machakos on the occasion of the silver jubilee of his episcopal ordination. The Cathedral was full to overflowing with groups of faithful from the four corners of the diocese. When introducing the nuns, the bishop asked the clergy and people to give them every support possible. The bishop himself has set an example by giving the nuns a five-acre plot of land and a house as temporary residence until the nuns build their monastery, and by showing his concern for their welfare. The bishop has appointed Frs. Boniface Nzomo and Lawrence Mutava to look after the spiritual and material needs of the nuns. Both priests have shown great kindness in their zeal to be of service to the nuns.

This may be considered as the first foundation of cloistered nuns of the Carmelite Order in Africa. A previous attempt in the 1950s had, for various reasons, to be abandoned. It is the hope of the Order that this monastery in Machakos will be the seedbed for many more foundations in Africa.