Bishop Okullu: A man of God with a heart for justice

By Kevine Omollo

Kenya: He was a man with plenty of fire in his belly, and not even threats from the State would reduce him to silence. The late Bishop John Henry Okullu of the Anglican Church is remembered as a fierce critic of the government in the 1990s.

Unwavering, he issued sermons agitating for human rights, justice and also multi-party system of government.

In 1929 in Ramba Village, Asembo Central Location, Siaya District, a baby boy was born to Ong’owo Adero and Ngore Nyar Alaro.

Born and raised in the rural Ramba village of Siaya County, Bishop Okullu learnt the spirit of liberation at an early age, a situation which made him leave Kima School where he was in his upper primary without a certificate due to his frequent protest against alleged injustice in the school.

He was born in the period when infancy mortality rates were at their peak in the country and no one could predict his survival given that nine of his eldest siblings had died ahead of his birth.

He was then named Okullu, after a renowned harp player and baptised in 1947 and given the names John Henry, a King in the making, by his Kokise kinship.

His hard work and passion for excellence saw him work at Ramba gold mines to earn money for his tuition. This paid off when he received a scholarship to sit the Cambridge School Certificate in 1961.

From 1963 to 1965, he studied at Virginia Theological Seminary in the US and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree. In 1973, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree by the same institution for his exemplary service.

Okulu was thrown into the limelight when he started serving the Luo community as a layperson at Namirembe Cathedral in Kampala, Uganda in 1962 where he also became the editor of New Day, a Christian newspaper in Uganda.

His aim was to preach justice for all, especially the oppressed. He moved to Kenya and worked with other Christian English and Swahili publications such as Target and Lengo involved in the struggle against oppressive leadership in the country.

This became the main platform for his call for justice, which made him an outspoken critic of the Kenyan government in his sermons and publications on issues of human rights and justice, and particularly advocating for a multiparty system of governance.

Big dreams

He became a political target for the leaders who felt he was overstepping his role. Luckily, he narrowly slipped the wrath of detention.

His dream was the creation of a Kenya which would be democratic and economically viable; and this dream led to the birth of several movements he commissioned including the Friends of Democracy which received nationwide support.

He became the first black dean of the Nairobi All Saints Cathedral in 1971 and Bishop of Maseno South Diocese, a position which enabled him initiate the building of several churches in the diocese.

According to Ven. Canon Joshua Owiti of St Stephen Cathedral Kisumu, Okullu was a prophetic bishop whose visions were always fulfilled.

Canon Owiti who was the personal assistant to Bishop Okullu between 1990 and 1994 recalls the bishop standing before President Moi at a function at St Barnabas Moi Girls Secondary School in Seme, Kisumu County and shouting at him to embrace change.

“It was with the intervention of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Ndolo Ayar that the function went on,” says Canon Owiti.

He says it was during this function that the phrase, ‘Remember change has come from Northern Sahara sweeping through to Southern Africa, and those who never minded to change risked being changed by the said change,’ was born.

“The church and the State is the same thing so engaging in politics was not sin. Remember politicians are also members of various religious groups and we had to look into their plights,” says Canon Owiti.

Bishop Okulu retired in 1994 at the same diocese and later died in 1999.

Even though he had utmost respect for the Luo culture, he is said to have discouraged excessive feasting during funerals, an act he said “left the relatives of the deceased poorer”.

During his ministry, Okullu served on many national and international committees as well as numerous local bodies. He started a financial company to provide loans for the poor and initiated development projects including educational institutions, agricultural and health programmes.