In a statement, the missionaries of the Consolata of Venezuelacongregation to which K’Okal belonged, confirmed his death, after he was reported missing a day earlier.
Since noon on January 1, missionaries from the religious order and residents of Tucupita, capital of Delta Amacuro, began the search, because they had not heard from him for more than three hours. The priest, recognized for his work with the Warao indigenous communitywas a charismatic man who did not go unnoticed in the population and was not in the habit of being absent for long periods of time.
Around 9:00 am (Venezuela time), K’Okal left the congregation’s house in the capital of Delta, without his identity documents and without his cell phone, aboard a bicycle with which he used to exercise, while evangelizing. in the different communities, according to the local media Tane Tanae.
After 10:00 am he was seen in the Janokosebe indigenous urban development, on a section of the national highway, and around 11:00 am. He would have crossed the checkpoint of the Venezuelan guard stationed on the border with the Monagas state. It would be the last time he was seen alive..
Alleged suicide
K’Okal’s body, 54 years old, It was found by a neighbor in the area. Hanging limply from a mango treeat a considerable height, in a large agricultural and livestock field, between the states of Monagas and Tucupita.
Douglas Ricodirector of the Corps of Scientific Criminal and Criminal Investigations (CICPC), through his Instagram account, reported that the death of priest K’okal It was a suicide due to a supposed “recent depressive state”which would have been confirmed by acquaintances and evidenced during the emptying of the phone, in conversations where he showed symptoms of the alleged illness.
“The technical-scientific investigation work allows us to handle a ‘possible’ suicide as the motive for the incident, since at the time of being located in the residence where he lived, a link to a rope that he used to take his life was found. When carrying out the technical inspection at the site of the incident, another part of the rope segment was collected, so the experts were carried out and it was determined that there was continuity of it,” according to the official.
Case that generates suspicions
Church personalities, human rights activists, indigenous rights defenders and social media users have expressed their deep regret over the sudden death of the missionary. But, in addition, they have showed his suspicion about the alleged cause of his death.
“Dear brother, may your soul rest in peace. Thank you for so much love for this Venezuelan land, thank you for being a great missionary,” wrote the Consolata of Venezuela in its account. Facebook.
He Cardinal Baltazar Porras, together with the Archdiocese of Caracas, joined in prayer for the death of the Kenyan priest, naturalized Venezuelan after his long stay in the South American country. “He was a good priest and a generous missionary,” added the archdiocese in X, before Twitter.
“May Josiah’s testimony continue to enlighten us in our common mission and inspire missionary vocations to care for the communities and their territories,” said the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network (REPAM).
However, these messages of condolences are added doubts about the cause of his death and requests for an investigation about the events surrounding the priest’s death.
An Instagram user, identified as Jeissy Alejandra Quiñonez López, highlighted the fight for human rights that the father, “from Kenya, but more Venezuelan than anyone”carried out in the country.
“Those of us who knew his work know that he had been denouncing the crime of white slavery that has intensified in those areas of the Monagas and Delta Amacuro states, we know that he loved life beyond the irregularities and problems. He couldn’t have taken his own life.”, he asserted.
For her part, Internet user Antonella Tolentino wrote in X: “It is too hard for me to believe that he committed suicide. He was a very optimistic, happy person, he literally loved life.”.
Along the same lines, Mileidy Blanco added: “Those of us who knew Father K’okal find it difficult to believe that he committed suicide. Now everything in Venezuela is suicide. The easiest thing to close the case.”
Who was the father K’Okal
Missionary Josiah Asa K’Okal was born in Kenya on September 7, 1969. He entered the Consolata in 1993 and, after completing theological studies in London, England, he was ordained a priest on August 9, 1997. That same year, he arrived to Venezuela, where he served as a missionary for more than 25 years in the communities of Barlovento, Miranda state (north-central), Barquisimeto, Lara state (central-west), and then Tucupita.
Since 2006 he dedicated himself to learning the culture and language of the Warao ethnic group., to which he dedicated the last years of his life. “The mission assumes a very strong social dimension. We find that our effort goes into social issues, there is a lot of poverty, the Warao economy has changed in a very drastic way. In the pipes and in Tucupita, there are many people going hungry, I literally say this responsibly. “It is something we live every day, it is something real,” she said in mid-July last year on the regional community television station. Cain TV.
At that time, he highlighted the work he had done to make visible the critical situation that this indigenous population was experiencing and the effort focused on the fight against poverty.
According to REPAM, the missionary also accompanied the migration you have experienced this ethnic group in many regions of Venezuela and Brazil, due to the emergency that the oil nation is experiencing caused by the Chavista regime, in power for 24 years.
In recent months, the priest had denounced the crime of human trafficking, which has intensified in the indigenous communities of the Monagas and Delta Amacuro states, where they use the pipes as an exit to Trinidad and Tobago and even Guyana, with whom Venezuela disputes the Essequibo territory.
They demand “exhaustive and credible” investigation
Faced with this situation, both the Warao indigenous community and Father Alfredo Infante Silvera, provincial superior of the Company of Jesus in Venezuela, They demanded a thorough, clean and credible investigation.
The Warao population, according to the regional media Tane Tanae, demands from the police authorities a “clean, neat and, above all, credible” investigation process. This, given other similar events that have remained unresolved, such as the case of the indigenous Irma Garciawhose death has not yet been clarified, since she was found dead in February 2022, according to information.
For his part, the Jesuit Infante Silvera considered that the death of Father K’okal is “full of many questions,” being a defender of human rights in such a “complex and adverse context, where the human rights of the community are threatened.” Warao population.”
“We all attest to the human quality of Father K’Okal and his close and brave work of solidarity with the vulnerable Warao people. We need there to be a serious investigation until we reach the truth, everything is very blurry,” he emphasized.
Source: With information from regional media of Delta Amacuro / REPAM / Infobae / social networks
