The Church in Kenya – the last institution standing

By Gitonga Njeru
16 April 2026, The Tablet

Children at the Garden Estate Primary school waiting in line to be served lunch provided daily for free by Madre Teresa Catholic Parish.

Gitonga

Just after sunrise in Nairobi’s eastern fringes, plastic plates are being laid out on a long wooden table inside the compound of Garden Estate Primary School.

Back in Nairobi, the feeding programme at Madre Teresa winds down for the day. Plates are washed. Attendance sheets filed away. Tomorrow, the routine will begin again. In parish kitchens, in health clinics and in their work in conflict mediation, Catholic communities are holding together Kenya’s broken care economy not because they believe they should replace the state, but because the need is immediate and human, and withdrawal feels impossible. As Sister Agnes tells me: “You cannot preach human dignity and then close the clinic.”

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