How Omtatah's path changed from priesthood to activism

A sudden serious illness ended Okiya Omtatah’s journey to be a Catholic priest.

He had made up his mind he would spend his life as a preacher in a remote rural outpost with his bible, rosary and cassock.

No interest whatsoever in the glamour and influence of ecclesial power.

Omtatah was so committed he declined an offer to study for a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Nairobi upon passing his A-level exams.

And then disaster struck while he was in senior seminary.

“I developed grand mal, epilepsy. I was told you couldn’t become a priest with epilepsy because what happens if you got an attack during the Eucharist? And it made sense,” he says.

That debilitating hurdle of his chosen path changed forever his life forever.

The medical treatment he received at the Aga Khan Hospital did not improve his condition. At the height of his illness, he would suffer three to four fits a day.

In 1987, a chance encounter got him the elusive end to his misery. Omtatah says he was fully cured within days. He had been playing football one day when he suffered an epileptic attack. After he recovered, a player from the opposing team offered to try to cure him.

The young man was a primary school teacher newly posted to Omtatah’s home area. He said he had learned traditional medicine from his grandfather.

“He charged us Sh1,500 and after my father agreed, he put me on medication on December 17, 1987 for 12 days. He told me I was cured. Since then, I have not had a fit to this day,” Omtatah says.

Thereafter, he proceeded to Kenya Polytechnic to study mechanical engineering, hoping to get a job making the Nyayo Pioneer cars launched with much fanfare by the government of then-President Daniel arap Moi.

But upon graduation, Omtatah moved on to other things. He never worked as an engineer but went into private business and writing. Omtatah has published six books – five plays and a novella. They include Lwanda Magere, March to Kampala, Voice of the People, Chains of Junkdom and An Exchange for Honour.

The activist was born 55 years ago on November 30, 1964, in Kwang’amor village, Teso South constituency, Busia county.

“I am told I was born at home in the village. My mother went into labour around 9pm. It was a Monday,” he said.

“My father was listening to the BBC and Winston Churchill, the former Prime minister of Britain, was celebrating his 91st birthday. So, the first name I was given when I was born was Churchill, the name I am known by in the village.”

He was the firstborn son of his parents behind four sisters.

From Kwang’amor Primary School, Omtatah joined St Paul’s Amukura Secondary School for two years, “where I met Guadalupe Fathers, who convinced me to join the seminary. I joined St Peter’s Tindinyo seminary for form three and four. Then continued to five and six.”

He turned down a place at the University of Nairobi and instead went to St Augustine seminary in Mabanga, Bungoma, to pursue philosophy in preparation for the priesthood.

Omtatah says his interest in working for the church arose from his strong Catholic roots.

“I come from a fairly strong Catholic background. My grandfather was given official recognition by John Paul II in 1985 as a distinguished Catholic. He sent him a special medal,” he says.

Omtatah says his activism is an apostolate much like the priesthood. “I take this as a form of apostolate in the belief that if the law was fully obeyed, we would all live in paradise,” he says.

And Omtatah has paid a high price for his relentless struggle against the dark forces of corruption and impunity. He was once attacked in Nairobi in connection with his work and lost 10 teeth. He had to undergo constructive surgery on the head to heal a wound that almost killed him.

Omtatah says he has come under a lot of pressure to compromise over the public interest cases he files. “I am one person who believes in the power to say no,” he says, attributing that moral resolve to his training in philosophy and theology.

He is married with four children, the lastborn currently in university.