Nyamira County and the wider Gusii medical fraternity are mourning Dr Ezekiel Archimedes Orwenyo, a pioneering obstetrician and gynaecologist whom tributes describe as having inspired many students from the area to pursue medicine and as having established private hospitals in Gusii land and beyond.
Dr Orwenyo, who died after a battle with a rare form of cancer, will be buried today, Friday, at his Nyakongo home in Kitutu Masaba Constituency, Nyamira County. He was 74, going by the birth date given by the family.
Tributes have come from community groups, former patients, doctors and students, who describe him as a father of private healthcare in Gusii and the North Rift.
Hospitals linked to him
His name is associated with Nyangena Hospital in Kisii, and with Mama Birita Hospital and Racecourse Hospital in Eldoret. The tributes say the institutions reflected his vision of expanding access to medical care beyond public hospitals.
Mama Birita Hospital was named in honour of his mother. Nyangena Hospital became one of the most prominent private facilities in Kisii, and Racecourse Hospital took his work to the North Rift. According to the tributes, he pioneered private practice at a time when most specialists remained in public service.
Early life and career
Dr Orwenyo was born on September 1, 1952, in Nyakongo village, Nyamira County, to the late Nicodemus Orwenyo and Birita Orwenyo. He began his education at Nyakongo Primary School and later joined Itierio Secondary School for his O-level studies.
At the University of Nairobi, where he enrolled for a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), his ability in mathematics earned him the Greek name Archimedes, after the ancient mathematician and scientist.
According to family information, he specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology, completing his master's degree in 1983, and was posted to Bungoma District Hospital as its first obstetrician and gynaecologist. He worked there briefly and went into private practice in 1987.
Family and faith
Dr Orwenyo married Sister Teresa Bonareri Orwenyo in 1983, and they raised six children. They include Dr David Momanyi Orwenyo, Dr Stephen Matoke Orwenyo, Dr James Ogeto Orwenyo, Sister Mary Kerubo and Dr Daniel Mwambi Orwenyo.
According to his eulogy, most of his children and members of his extended family have pursued careers in medicine. His children described him as "a mentor and pillar whose lessons went beyond professional success to include integrity, resilience, discipline and purposeful living."
A devout Seventh-day Adventist, he fellowshipped in Bungoma, Kisii and Gesima. The family remembers him as positive and resilient, and says he continued to put his patients' needs ahead of his own, even during his illness.
Residents say his greatest legacy is the hundreds of young people from Nyamira and Kisii whom he mentored and inspired to join medicine, nursing and clinical practice, many of whom now work as doctors in Kenya and abroad.
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