Italian-born former Catholic missionary Sandro Ferretto, 55, married Kenyan woman Sharon Jepng’ok in a traditional Koito ceremony at Seretion Village, Kasiela, in Baringo South, Kenya, on Sunday, September 6, 2026, marking a striking new chapter after Ferretto spent 12 years serving the local Catholic community.

The ceremony brought Ferretto back to the same Baringo community where he had once served as a parish priest.

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Relatives, elders, local leaders and Jepng’ok’s colleagues reportedly gathered for the occasion, which followed Kalenjin customary traditions.

Ferretto and Jepng’ok formalised their union through a Koito ceremony, a significant Kalenjin family rite involving introductions, customary negotiations and blessings from elders.

The ceremony can vary among Kalenjin communities, but its central purpose is to bring the two families together and formalise their commitment to the union.

Images and videos from the celebration show the couple dressed in colourful traditional attire and taking part in cultural festivities.

Ferretto, who was once known locally as “Father Sandro”, was also seen dancing with his bride as family and community members celebrated the union.

Ferretto was ordained for the Diocese of Padua in Italy before beginning missionary work in Kenya in 2008.

He subsequently served in Kasiela and Mochongoi under the Diocese of Nyahururu, where his work included pastoral ministry, youth programmes and community development initiatives.

His long association with Baringo made the wedding particularly significant. Ferretto had built relationships in the region during more than a decade of missionary service before returning to Italy in December 2020.

Back in Italy, Ferretto continued his pastoral career. By 2023, he was leading a pastoral unit in Saletto, Borgo Veneto, overseeing eight churches in the Padua diocese.

He later stepped away from the position, reportedly requesting a period of reflection.

The development eventually took Ferretto back to Kenya, where he reunited with Jepng’ok, whom multiple Kenyan reports say he had met during his missionary years in Baringo.

Their relationship subsequently became part of a much different chapter of Ferretto’s life outside active priestly ministry.

The circumstances are significant because Catholic priests in the Latin Church are ordinarily bound by the obligation of celibacy.

However, leaving active ministry does not automatically mean that a priest has lost his clerical status or been released from the obligation of celibacy.

The Vatican’s Code of Canon Law states that a cleric can lose the clerical state through specified canonical procedures, including a rescript from the Apostolic See.

It also states that loss of clerical status does not, by itself, dispense a priest from the obligation of celibacy, which requires a separate dispensation from the Roman Pontiff.

That distinction is important in Ferretto’s case. Although reports describe him as having left the priesthood, publicly available information reviewed for this report does not establish whether the Vatican formally granted him laicisation and a dispensation from celibacy.

Neither the Diocese of Padua nor the Diocese of Nyahururu had publicly confirmed those canonical details in the reports reviewed.

What is clear is that Ferretto has moved away from his former role as an active missionary priest and has now publicly begun married life with Jepng’ok in the Kenyan community where much of his missionary story unfolded.

The choice of a Koito ceremony also gives the marriage a strong cultural dimension.

Rather than simply marking a personal union, the ceremony brought together families and community members in a tradition that places considerable emphasis on family recognition, elder participation and cultural identity.

For Baringo residents who knew Ferretto during his years of service, his return was therefore more than an unexpected wedding story.

It was the return of a familiar figure, this time not in clerical robes but as a groom embracing the traditions of the community in which he once worked.

Ferretto’s transition from missionary priest to husband has since attracted considerable attention in Kenya and Italy, with photographs and videos from the colourful ceremony circulating widely online.

The story ultimately brings together two very different parts of Ferretto’s life: his years of Catholic missionary service in Kenya and his decision to build a family life with Jepng’ok.

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In Baringo, that new chapter began in familiar surroundings, but under profoundly different circumstances, as the former priest joined his bride and her family in a ceremony rooted in Tugen and wider Kalenjin tradition.