We loved you Father Christopher Wanyonyi. Born 17th April 1958 died 8th August 2021, died aged 61.
℣. Requiem æternam dona ei (eis), Domine℟. Et lux perpetua luceat ei (eis):℣. Requiescat (-ant) in pace.℟. Amen.
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In my chronicles on growing up Luhya, documented on this website, I must have dropped titbits here and there of life in catholic schools of western Kenya. Today, in honor of a man of God I was blessed to know, I step back to the early 90s. This was a time when being a sugarcane farmer meant you could still pay school fees. A young girl I was, just old enough to know how to take care of my personal hygiene and follow a routine, such as the Christian duties expected of a girl raised the catholic way.
This is to say I had the privilege of dancing in church. You see those little girls who perform the exuberant offertory dance unique to Africanized catholic mass? Yes, I was one of them offertory dancers, if we’d call them that. Right from age ten to about the time I finished high school.
Ordination
It was during those days of my life as an offertory dancer that I chanced to participate in an ordination of new priests. I remember it involved nine priests, among whom was the late Father Christopher Wanyoyi and Father Pius Osyanju.
I vividly remember this particular ordination because it was the first for me. It also might have been my first interaction with the late Fr. Wanyonyi; a giant of man with a booming voice that oozed authority who presided over tens of church masses whose content brought me up.
You know the kind of people who are born loud? The ones who it would be an inglorious pain to ask them them to whisper? That was Fr. Wanyonyi. He talked as though he was shouting – a trait which one would normally associate with brash personality; But if you knew him well, you’d have feel his pure heart.
It is this pure heart that earned him yet another title, that of OCS.
OCS
Having been in and around Bungoma town most of his life, thereby knowing it and its people in all their glory, beautiful and otherwise, coupled with his loud personality, Fr. Wanyonyi came to earn the moniker OCS. Meaning, Officer Commanding Station. The station? Well, his beloved Christ the King Catholic Church, now cathedral, where he served longest as parish priest.
Much will be eulogized about his exemplary work there, like founding one of the country’s top primary schools, Christ The King Primary School. Much less will be said about his championing of causes, in the spirit of mulembe, such as linking vulnerable children from humble backgrounds to kind benefactors. This kind act being something that must have come from his own experience – READ: Dr Antony Walela’s tribute to his departed life long friend.
Thus thanks to his networks as OCS, father Wanyonyi knew who could help where and how. Having cultivated these networks over time, he knew who among the Bungoma elite would go an extra step to make a life better, or pull a dream closer. Some of his deepest networks were in the murky world of politics. It’s a world he knew how to tip toe around emerging with no dirt on him as only a true nandeti we tosi could.
Politics
For those who don’t know, in his own right Dr Walela, the author of this moving tribute, is a consummate politician. This is not to say their friendship is related in any way to the statement that follows, but Fr. Wanyonyi knew the heart of Bungoma county politics.
Indeed Christ the King church has been a battlefield of sorts for Bungoma county politicians angling for hearts and souls to seed their rhetoric. But do not mistake this statement to mean that they would have their way there, no! A certain OCS held forte. Decorum and purpose held sway. The focus had to be on what mattered: the people. Cue, read Dr Masafu’s tribute: A voice of reason, a champion of development.
It was not unusual for Father Wanyonyi to call out politicians , big and small, to deliver on their mandate. Often, in his booming voice, he would publicly count the number of years politician x had been in office.
Then he’d throw in the spanner, remind them that when the time came, they would have to give an account of what they has done while in office. And they shouldn’t complain when the electorate served them what they deserved.
Ministry
As a result, as much as Father Wanyonyi commanded respect from politicians, he also had a way of making everyone around him comfortable. How did he do this? My best answer was that he was just in all he did. It’s something that was evident in his preaching that was always punctuated with real life experiences and real talk.
I once attended mass where father Wanyonyi was administering the first holy communion sacrament to teenagers. In his sermon, his clear prose on God’s expectation of new church members duty to serve humanity, stuck with me. To the parents, he commended them for bringing children to church just as Christ had commanded.
Further, in his typical cut-to-the-bone fashion, he condemned parents who brought children to church during the day, only to teach them how to run around naked at night.
This made the whole church burst into laughter.
He then turned his sword of the word to the guest of the day: the teenagers. Father’s message to them was simple. It being they had accepted God into their lives, from that day onwards they should know that he won’t be leaving their side. God will be by their side at all the times and in all places – even when they went stealing other people’s sugar cane or hiding with girls and holding them inappropriately.
Such real talk.
Let me tell you, you wouldn’t attend Father Wanyonyi’s service and leave the same. Nothing is the same now, now that he his gone. Christ The King Bungoma, will never be the same. For all of us whose souls he nourished, who he served in the lord, our lives were never the same since we met this man of God. Our lives, Bungoma, the world is forever changed, because he lived.
Tributes to Father Wanyonyi
An inspiration, mobiliser, leader
I have been a friend to Fr Christopher Wanyonyi since 1981. He was slightly older than most of his classmates when he joined Kibabii Boys High School as a form 2 student. I did not know which school he had come from.
All I knew of him was that he was a determined, focused student. Unlike most of us who had “modern” metal boxes to keep our belongings, Christopher had a cheaper wooden box.
Every school opening, he would cycle his bicycle from somewhere near Nalondo, his wooden box strapped on the black mamba’s carrier. He would then have to cycle back to Nalondo to return the bike, and then walk to Kibabii to report to school.
Such was the humble background he came from. It wasn’t easy making it given his humble roots.
Still, a few years later, he had been posted to my Kabula Catholic Parish as a priest.
Years later, in the late 90s, he mobilized us sons and daughters of the soil in raising funds to put up The Kabula Catholic Church – one of the biggest churches in Bungoma county.
Our then MP, Hon Lawrence Sifuna, invited Finance minister Hon Chris Okemo as Chief Guest; a sign of the late parish priest’s mobilization skills.
About some 20 years ago, it’s such leadership nous that my late friend carried along when he was transferred to Bungoma Catholic Parish.
Indeed, Christ the King Primary School Bungoma and the magnificent modern Cathedral can rightfully be attributed to him.
As a result Father’s presence, as we all simply referred to him, was felt in Kanduyi, Samoya, Bukembe, Bungoma town and all over our blessed county.
We have lost a focused man in Bungoma. Rest in Peace Fr Christopher Wanyonyi.
A tribute by Dr. Antony Walela, CEC Health Bungoma County.
A voice of reason, a champion of development.
Today, I was deeply saddened to hear that this morning we lost a true champion and, especially for Bungoma’s Christ The King family, a principled voice of reason, with the passing on Fr. Christopher Wanyonyi. Father was my brother, a friend and purveyor of justice who guided my steps from time to time.
He was a firm believer in devoted, experienced and honest leadership.
Fr. Wanyonyi’s story of never tiring in making the lives of others better is one to emulate.
He chose to serve his people with all his energy as an authoritative scholar, respected church leader and unparalleled champion of justice and development.
He singlehandedly strived to give Christ The King a new look – an ultra modern church – and I am privileged to have supported him in that journey.
We take solace in the fact that he achieved a lot for the church and Bungoma county family and that God has called him to rest.
My thoughts and prayers are with Christ the King family and all the people of Bungoma county who loved Fr. Wanyonyi.
Dr. George Sirengo Masafu, Kenya’s Ambassador to Kinshasa, DRC.
Fr. Wanyonyi, thanks for being a father to all of us in all ways
I knew of Fr. Wanyonyi in the late 90s when Kabula Catholic Church was still a sub-parish under Bungoma Parish. He took up the construction of Kabula church with resolve.
The church had sufured several false starts and had been relegated to a white elephant status, dur to mismanagement of funds. The foundation trenches had become a hideout for village urchins and petty thieves.
I remember the statement he kept saying ‘manyile mulebakho chisendi lakini paka khulombakha ekanisa khumale’.
I also remember him chasing one development committee member of church, right in front of the congregation, for falling to account for the collected funds.
He ordered him never to return to church until he could account for the money. A towering figure, Father Wanyonyi was never known to mince his words.
Later, as a parent at Christ the King Primary school, my boys would share stories of how Father Wanyonyi would walk into their classes unannounced, to personally supervise the teaching. They know how to say different catholic prayers, courtesy of Fr. Wanyonyi.
Under his patronage, Christ The King Catholic choir has produced some of the best catholic worship songs. As a congregant at Christ the King Cathedral Bungoma, I always looked forward to his booming voice and animated yet fiery homilies.
Father leaves behind a legacy of two of the biggest catholic churches in Bungoma diocese, Kabula Catholic church and Christ The King Cathedral; on his account, Bungoma has one of the best performing public primary schools in the republic.
More importantly, the footprints he leaves in Bungoma county, its people and in our lives shall forever be indelible.
Tribute by Sudi Mukhwana Omukhone Wandabusi, Personal Assistant to Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka.
