Parish pays last respects to slain nun today

Dar es Salaam. Members of the Makoka Catholic Parish in Kinondoni District are today paying their last respects to a committed school worker they fondly referred to as “our mother.”

Learning at the Anuarite Secondary School where she worked and other community activities at the parish have been suspended to allow everybody the opportunity to bid farewell to Sister Cresensia Kapuli, 50, who was gunned down on Monday.

At the school grounds, tearful teachers and students were putting final touches on the podium where prayers for the nun, whose life was cut short by gun totting robber, will take place.

Sister Kapuli’s large framed portrait was the poignant sign posted at the podium to remind mourners of a vibrant and loving woman whose life was brought to an abrupt end by the robbers who killed her in cold blood during a robbery at Riverside along Mandela Road.

The killing of the Catholic sister has sent shockwaves in the hilly and sleepy Makoka Parish, where, for the last two years, people had come to cherish Sister Kapuli, a woman about whom those who spoke to The Citizen concurred was a committed servant as the school’s accountant and cashier.

The school head, Mr Carlos Mgumba, was overcome with emotion, weeping openly during an interview with The Citizen at the school yesterday.

He had a difficult time explaining the loss that the school had just suffered. “We lost her at a time when we needed her most; she was an innocent being who was hugely popular with everyone here,” said the headmaster, adding:

“Sister Kapuli was strict but very respectful, honest and obedient too; it is so difficult to believe that she is gone and we will not see her ever again.”

Mr Mgumba noted that Sister Kapuli was a trusted bursar for the school where she had served for two and a half years before her untimely death.

On the fateful day, she had gone to withdraw money to buy food and other essentials for the school. She was with a colleague when they were ambushed in their car by three armed thugs who shot her on the chest, killing her instantly.

The headmaster declined to discuss how much money the robbers grabbed from the deceased, but earlier police reports indicated some Sh20 million may have been stolen.

“What I can say is that she didn’t have a lot of money as the school mainly deals in cheques instead of cash transactions when huge sums of money are involved. I suspect the robbers knew it was pay day for our staff and would have stopped the victims anywhere around here,” the headmaster said.

Other reports, however, say the robbers may have trailed the deceased from Mlimani City shopping centre where she had withdrawn cash at the CRDB Bank.

Teachers and students said that the news of the bursar’s death shocked everyone around the school, where she will be remembered as a mother and advisor to all.

The school driver, Mr Patrick Mwarabu, was wounded and lost his thumb in the attack. The other nun who is the school’s deputy head managed to escape unhurt by ducking into a nearby shop.