Bishops fence project was mooted during the Diocesan Annual General Assembly (AGA) in August of 2017 when the officials attending visited the site and saw the dilapidated state of the fence.
The upper side used to be a forested area but now a new settlement had established itself into a village, called Gichagi.
The fence is made of poles and barbed wire and because it is on the lower side does not actually provide adequate protection to the bishop’s residence.
Those who went to see for themselves found dirty water seepage, used pampers and plastics among others, an unsightly scene for the residence of the bishop. Immediately, some members attending the AGA pledged building materials towards the project
A Project Steering committee was formed with Patrick Masinde , from St Mary’s Ongata Rongai as Chairman, John T Muchai from St Barnabas Matasia as Project Manager, Dominic Ondoro from Noonkopir as Funds raising coordinator, Gabriel Kyumu from Ngong as treasurer, and William Kamau from Ongata Rongai as Secretary. The committee is composed mainly of members from Ngong Deanery due to the ease of meeting by proximity to the area of function. All executive members of all the Parishes in the Diocese are defacto members of this committee.
The committee met several times from August 2017 and overcame some bureaucratic hurdles such as getting permission from the bishop and this being forwarded to the Parishes for the Fathers in charge to allow collection of funds. A date had also been set for 1st May, 2018 as a handing over date for the completed fence. The committee came out with a targeted collection amount of KSh 9 million and finally divided the amount according to the ratios that each parish gives during the Diocesan Family day in order to get an equitable distribution. This fund takes care of the fence and auxiliary works
The 2017 being an election year, bore its brunt on the project as the country, as usual during an election year, sunk in economic activity affecting everybody. The date of 1stmay became untenable after it became apparent that funds were not forth coming.
Meetings during this year set a new date for a major fund raiser, after the country settled down from the election fever, to 16th May 2019. In the meantime each Parish executive committee is expected to mobilize all men to contribute to this worthy cause.
In the meantime, pledges are being forwarded to the fund raising coordinator and/or the Diocesan office via the parish treasurer who will obtain a receipt and the information relayed to the Deanery treasurer for record keeping and coordination of target achievements.
