The Archbishop of Nomiya Church, Gideon Charles Owalo, is dead.
Archbishop Owalo is father to Eliud Owalo, a Nairobi management consultant. Eliud was Cord leader Raila Odinga's aide when Raila was Prime Minister.
The archbishop died last week at the Aga Khan Hospital, Kisumu, aged 96.
He will be buried in his home in Asembo, Rarieda Constituency, on March 7.
Owalo has been the head of the Church in East Africa for the past four decades.
Nomiya Church was the first African Independent Church in Kenya and is renowned for initiating male circumcision about 100 years ago.
According to his son, Eliud, the church has a population of about 274,000 members in East Africa.
Eliud said the church and its history has been a major ingredient in the high school syllabus of both Religious Education and History subjects.
“He was one of the pioneer students at both Maseno School and Makerere University, after which he became a high school teacher for many years, with his areas of specialisation being Mathematics and Agriculture,” Eliud said.
He said some of his father's students include Raila, whom he taught at Maranda High School, the late National Assembly Deputy Speaker Joab Omino, whom he taught at Maseno School and former assistant minister James Gesame, whom he taught at Kisii High School.
His other students include former minister Orwa Ojode, High Court judge Nicholas Ombija and Siaya Governor Cornell Rasanga.
He left teaching to join the pulpit, following the footsteps of his late father Nabi Yohana Owalo, who founded the church in 1907.
Nabi died in 1921, leaving behind Archbishop Owalo as an infant.
“Despite not having any history of ill-health, his health suddenly plummeted in the recent past after losing several family members in close succession," Eliud said.
He said the archbishop lost his first wife, a son and two daughter in a short span of time.