Sister Gabriela: I did not leave husband and two kids

A Catholic sister who claims to be a hermit is suing a man for spreading rumours that she abandoned a husband and two children who now live in grinding poverty.

In a plaint filed by Ombito & Company Advocates of Mumias, Sister Gabriela Delarosa is seeking a permanent injunction to restrain John Peterson Dennis, who is believed to operate between Harambee market in Mumias and Nairobi, to desist from propagating lies without basis or justification.

She also wants him to desist from engaging in limitless rumour mongering and portraying the plaintiff and the entire sisterhood as ‘philanderers and profligate’.

Gabriela, through her legal cousel, states that the utterances have been made at ‘different places to different audiences inclusive but not limited to Holy Family basilica, chapels and places of worship with attendant listeners from far and wide.’In a letter addressed to the CID Director, Gabriela states that the allegations are complete lies and she has never been married in her lifetime.

The letter reads in part, “I overheard people saying that I once killed somebody. My enemies even claim that I conned people of money to buy a vehicle in a garage.”

The Nairobian contacted the Catholic Church through Reverend Father Jude of the Holy Family Minor Basilica in Nairobi, who said the church was not aware of any hermit in Nairobi.

Father Jude states that it would be impossible for the Catholic Church to leave one of its out in the cold to fight alone.
“There are so many gaps in her story. We do not know or have someone called John Peterson Dennis. Anybody working on behalf of the Catholic Church within the diocese of Nairobi, we would at least have him in our records because that is our procedure. There is nobody who operates in the name of the church without registering with the diocese,” Fr Jude told The Nairobian.

Fr Jude further questions why a hermit would opt to go to court or to the police first before even reporting the matter to church. “I have been here long enough but I have never heard of any hermit out there living alone. Hermitic life is a religious life that in a very specific way relates with the Arch Diocese so, she should tell us more. Who else knows about her and her mission in Kenya?” posed Jude.

A top official at the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya who spoke to The Nairobian also said there is no way a Catholic nun would be out there living all alone without a congregation attached to her.

“The diocese should know and the CID should give us a report on the same. We have had such cases before but every case is unique. How are we to treat her if she doesn’t belong to any congregation of sisters? She lives as a hermit alone. There are no indications that can give any leads we can follow. Yes, the church has hermits, but do you think with their secretive life one would be available for a journalist? Such details are kept with the diocese,” she said.

Sister Gabriela, who hails from Bungoma, says she joined Sisters of Trinity in France as an aspirant and postulant in 1998. Under the order, each local community of Trinitarians serves the people of its area. Their ministry includes hospitality, care for the sick and poor, churches, education, as well as evangelisation.
“I pray for the sick, disadvantaged and sometimes counsel those who have lost hope in life. Unfortunately, the sisterhood order of Trinity does not have a convent in Kenya, she said.

“I lead a life of a hermit, those who travel and work in the desert and I am not attached to a particular parish but serve in the community I visit or live in,” says Sister Gabriela who claims her sisterhood order is yet to be understood by many Kenyans.