St. James parish welcomes Fr. Boniface Nzomo, our new Associate. Fr. Nzomo was born in the Eastern Province of Kenya in 1955. He was born into a non-Christian farm family and attended Catholic school as a youngster. He became interested in the Catholic faith and was baptized in 1968. Later, his parents became Catholic. Fr. Nzomo has one brother and four sisters. His mother died in 1978, and his father, now 98, still runs a farm.

In 1973, Fr. Nzomo entered the Queen of Apostles Junior Seminary (similar to our high schools). In 1977 he entered the Senior Seminary and was ordained on June 9, 1986. One of his instructors, John Njue, is currently serving as Bishop of Kenya's capitol city, Nairobi, and was recently selected to be a Cardinal.

Fr. Nzomo has always worked in the diocese of Machakos. He was first assigned to a parish in Muthetheni where he was Assistant Pastor, and later, Pastor. Next, he was assigned as Pastor of the cathedral in Machakos, the mother church for the diocese. He served there for many years and in 2004, he was assigned as Pastor for the parish in Kanzalu. The cathedral parish is much larger than the St. James parish, but the other two parishes are comparable to St. James parish.

Our new Associate Pastor is on loan from the Diocese of Machakos for three years. Kenya has more priests than they can place in parishes, so they are loaning some priests to other countries to give their new priests opportunities to grow in their pastoral duties.

Like many Kenyans, Fr. Nzomo is fluent in both English and Swahili, the two official languages of that country. Additionally, he is fluent in the Kamba language that is used by many in the Eastern Province. His hobbies are reading and walking.

Kenya is a country on the east coast of Africa. It is about twice the size of the state of Nevada. Its economy is based heavily on agriculture (principally coffee and tea) and tourism. Fr. Nzomo says the greatest wealth in Kenya is its people. The family is the center of daily life, and he says the people have strong family values. He is looking forward to meeting and serving the people of St. James parish.