Lorna Irungu’s will to live

Death put its heavy hand on Lorna Irungu's shoulder in 1997 when she was diagnosed with Lupus, yet in all those years it never steered her towards darkness and despair.

When she finally left on March 2021, it was while undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at Karen Hospital, Nairobi.

Lorna is survived by her husband Edwin Macharia and her 12-year-old daughter Nancy Mumbi.

It wasn't the first time Lorna was in a hospital gurney. Throughout her life, Lorna had stared at the ceiling in strange hospitals in Kenya and India, willing herself to survive, whispering under her breath that it wasn't the day she bid farewell to her family....and survive she did.

"At some point I just wanted it to be over. I was just tired. I was really, really tired of the fighting, of the struggling, of being sick," she said in 2009 when she spent months in India recovering from a transplant.

Lorna's story continued through kidney failures, three transplants, and four major surgeries.

Inside her were kidneys donated by her father, sister, and brother, who gave parts of themselves to ensure she lived a full life.

Having a third transplant is a rarity.

That she wanted to put her body through yet another surgery was something that surprised even the doctors who operated for her in India.

Living, Lorna told Sunny Bindra in an interview, was her success.

“People define success as making a lot of money and going up the corporate ladder. For me, my success was getting up every day and going to work despite how I felt,” she said.

She refused to be defined by her illness and lived to build her career in media and communication.

She began her career in the performing arts at Phoenix Theatre and made the transition to TV, where she hosted Club Kiboko on KTN and Omo-Pick-A-Box on KBC.

She also had stints on radio doing the breakfast show on Capital FM, Kiss FM and later hosted State of The Nation, a radio show at then-Nation FM.

"For over 20 years, Lorna fought and, in many ways, won the battle against lupus, an autoimmune disease. Between 1998 and 2008, she had three kidney transplants. Despite continuing health challenges, she chose to live a joyful, purposeful, generous, and impactful life," the family said in a tribute.

Lorna did it all during her time, she directed and produced, did radio and television broadcast.

Her career expanded into film where she worked on the movie productions Dangerous Affairs (2002), and Rastar (2003).

Lorna spread joy and laughter on radio and television. She breathed life into artistes’ careers. She shared herself with family, friends and strangers.

For the 24 years that Lorna lived with Lupus, she bore the disease publicly and told her story to encourage others who were facing debilitating illnesses.

Through numerous talks and television interviews, she shared her high and low moments with the world. When she was indisposed, the world rooted for her.

On the day of her death, Juliet Maruru, herself a lupus survivor, said on her Twitter that Lorna's story of survival from Lupus had inspired her to live through the disease.

"When I was thinking that I wasn't going to make it, mum dug out old magazines of Lorna's Lupus story, made me read them, and stood over my hospital bed and commanded me, "You are going to make it," Maruru said on her handle @Sheblossoms.

Siwa Communications, a boutique PR firm she founded.

She served as Entertainment Manager for the Tamarind Group and was the brains behind popular events at the Carnivore such as New Jack Swing, Simba Soul, and Rock Nite. She also hosted international acts like Sean Paul and Shaggy.

In 2007, she served as Project Manager for the first season of Tusker Project Fame. She then served as Producer of Red Kona.

And in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic spread from the east into Kenya, an awareness was building that the risk was greater for her and others like her whose bodies were fighting other diseases.

"From the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, Lorna understood that implementing basic COVID-19 protocols was central to protecting the lives of those at risk of serious illness," her tribute said.

Lorna said as much in an interview with Grace Msalame last year.

She spoke about the protocols put in place to protect her family and herself from inspection and how she missed embracing her friends.

Lorna was also a committed social and gender activist and used her platform and skillset to amplify women's issues and causes.

She was a core part of Warembo Ni Yes, the grassroots women's campaign to develop and adopt Kenya's constitution in 2010.

She was Head of Communications for Martha Karua's run for President in 2013. Her efforts to create awareness of violence against women and girls were critical in the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 2006.

In 2006 she was also part of Vijana Tugutuke, the youth voter registration campaign.

Between 2018 and 2020, Lorna served as CEO of the Gina Din Group and prepared the group for acquisition by Edelman, the global PR agency. 

Lorna also played a hand in former US President Barack Obama's visit to Kenya in 2018.

In 2016, Lorna was appointed to a Government taskforce to work on the restructuring of Kenya's state broadcaster, KBC.

She served on the boards of the African Leadership Institute and World Reader-Kenya and completed her term on the Advocacy Accelerator Advisory Board in 2019. She was an Eisenhower Global Fellow (2016) and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellow (2010). She had a Bachelor of Communications degree from Daystar University

Some of those who mourned the loss, are World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and actress Lupita Nyong'o.

"I met her as a teenager and was captivated by her drive, her beauty, her warm smile. And how she fought Lupus so openly and fiercely changed my perception of what it means to be a powerful woman," the actress said.

Her death has brought on an outpouring of grief from friends, colleagues, and strangers who resonated with her and even those with who she interacted from her radio and television shows.

To celebrate her life and continuing legacy, her family is setting up the Lorna Irungu-Macharia Foundation dedicated to two causes that were close to her heart: the improvement of health policies and support for people living with autoimmune diseases, and the advancement of the rights of women and girls — particularly in leadership and politics.

Her family is hosting a virtual memorial ceremony tonight (March 26, 2021) at 7pm.