Servant of God Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga
By Stephen Mbobu
(January 31, 1923 – September 6, 2003)
On Thursday, November 12, 2026, the University will host the annual Cardinal Otunga Memorial Mass, Lecture and Fundraiser.
The annual event raises funds to support needy students at the University. The fund is named after Maurice Cardinal Otunga, the first Kenyan Archbishop and Cardinal.
He was also one of the founders of CUEA, and the University has honoured him by naming one of its lecture blocks after him.
Early Life
Maurice Michael Otunga was the son of a traditional chief of the Bakhone, Wasike Lusweti Sudi Namachanja, and of a diviner named Rosa Namisi. He was born on January 31, 1923 in Chebukwa (Bungoma District), Kakamega Diocese, in Western Kenya.
Born into a profoundly traditional family, he embraced Catholicism and was baptised in 1935, taking the name “Maurice Michael”. He went on to pursue the priesthood, much to the dismay of his kinfolk.
He entered the seminary in Kakamega after graduating from Mangu High School, and finished his major seminary training in Rome, where he was ordained a priest on October 3, 1950 at the age of twenty-seven. After ordination he completed his studies at the College of Propaganda Fide before returning to Kenya. He taught theology at Kisumu Major Seminary for three years and was named chancellor of the Curia. He also worked with the Apostolic Delegation in Kenya.
On November 17, 1956, Pope Pius XII named him titular Bishop of Tacape and Auxiliary Bishop of Kisumu, where he was installed on February 25, 1957. On May 21, 1960, Pope John XXIII appointed him Bishop of Kisii, where he remained until November 15, 1969, when Pope Paul VI made him titular Archbishop of Bomarzo and Coadjutor Archbishop of Nairobi with right of succession.
On October 24, 1971, after serving for two years under the Archbishop of Nairobi, Most Rev. John Joseph McCarthy, CSSp, Otunga was made Archbishop of Nairobi. As archbishop, he served as president of the National Episcopate and as a member of the Permanent Commission of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). He was also Vice-President of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA).
On March 5, 1973, Pope Paul VI elevated him to the College of Cardinals, with the titular Church of St. Gregory Barbarigo. He attended the third ordinary assembly of the World Synod of Bishops in the Vatican in 1974, the fourth in 1977 and the fifth in 1980. He was a member of the General Secretariat between 1977 and 1983, and took part in the conclaves of August and October 1978.
Cardinal Otunga also attended the Plenary Assembly of the Sacred College of Cardinals in the Vatican in November 1979, and was a member of the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See in 1981. At the synod, he made several recommendations, one of them urging SECAM to “come up with a guideline to work and to feel and follow up ever more in solidarity to obstacles, particularly political ones, against evangelization as justice and peace.”
When he retired as Archbishop of Nairobi in 1997, Cardinal Otunga chose as his retirement home a house for the poor — the Nyumba ya Wazee (home for the elderly) run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Nairobi. This was true to his life as archbishop: he never chose to live in luxury and always implored his priests to beware of materialism as an obstacle to Gospel witness.
Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga died on September 6, 2003, at the age of eighty, after serving the Church for fifty-three years as a priest, bishop and cardinal. Kenyans remember him as a great minister and a devoted pastor in the history of their land.
Creating a Society Cardinal Otunga Would Have Loved
Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga is remembered in Kenyan history as a great apostle and a father of African Christianity.
He is remembered most for his distinguished and humble leadership, which fostered phenomenal Church growth, making the Catholic Church the largest and fastest-growing church in the country. The Church grew not only in evangelisation but also in education, health and social welfare.
He encouraged holistic development. His vision for people’s physical, spiritual, social and economic development enabled the Catholic Church to reach communities by establishing the best schools, hospitals and colleges, among many other development projects. His leadership also brought liturgical renewal, making the form and style of worship more African — something that has attracted a large following.
Pilgrims continue to echo the message inscribed on the exterior wall of Cardinal Otunga’s Memorial Hall, which archives his personal belongings, including religious vestments, pictures and furniture: “A Disciple of Jesus Christ, he served His people with deep faith and love for all, as a humble priest, a compassionate shepherd.”
It is Cardinal Otunga’s dedication to serving all God’s people that led the Catholic Church to open the process for his canonisation.