As the remains of Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga, rest in the serene Resurrection Gardens in Karen, the more than 10 million Catholics are thirsting for a cardinal.
Four years after his death, Catholics have been waiting for the Vatican to appoint another clergy to take up Otunga’s mantle and lead the Church.
Vatican has not appointed any one from the 27 bishops to the red-capped post many believe is just a heartbeat away from the top seat in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
When Archbishop Ndingi Mwana a’Nzeki was appointed to head the Nairobi Diocese, many people thought he would be Kenya’s next cardinal.
However, Ndingi who has served as the Archbishop of Nairobi, is poised to retire any time from now without having been appointed to the coveted seat.
In a past interview, the Episcopal Conference, the mouthpiece of the Catholic Church, said the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XIV is the only one with the power to appoint bishops and cardinals.
When Otunga died in September 6, 2003, Catholics across Africa were at a great loss for losing one of the few black cardinals.
The man, who is considered by many as a saint, died at the age of 80, after serving the Church for 53 years as a priest, bishop, and cardinal.
Kenyans remember him as a great minister and a devoted pastor.
Along with his counterpart in the Anglican Church, Archbishop Festo Olang’, Otunga is remembered as a great apostle and a father of African Christianity.
Otunga is remembered most for his distinguished and humble leadership, which fostered phenomenal Church growth, making the Roman Catholic the largest and fastest growing local church.
The Church grew not just in its evangelisation efforts, but also in the areas of education, health and social welfare.
The late Cardinal encouraged holistic development. His vision for people’s physical, spiritual, social and economic development enabled the Roman Catholic Church to reach the community by establishing the best schools, hospitals and colleges among many other community development projects.
His leadership also brought a liturgical renewal, making the form and style of worship in the Church more African. This move attracted a large following.
His simplicity was a virtue that every person admired about him.
Although not a confrontational clergy, Otunga always stood for what he believed is right.
He is remembered for publicly setting ablaze condoms.
Even after his death, the Catholic Church still does not support use of condoms.
Most Catholics describe Otunga as a deeply spiritual and a much admired cleric and statesman.
Born in January 1923, in Chebukwa diocese of Kakamega, Otunga was the son of a Bukusu chief. He was baptised in 1935 at the age of 12.
He was the first Kenyan to become an archbishop and the first to become a cardinal in 1975.
He even took part in the conclave of electing a pope in 1978. Otunga entered the seminary in Kakamega after graduating from Mangu High School.
He finished his major seminary training in Rome where he was ordained a priest on October 3, 1950, at 27.
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 nominated 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.
Three years later, 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, the Most Reverend John Joseph McCarthy, 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.
He was also the vice-president of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa.
On March 5, 1973, Pope Paul VI elevated him to the office of cardinal. As cardinal, Otunga received 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 assembly in 1977, and the fifth assembly in 1980.
He was a member of the General Secretariat between 1977 and 1983, and participated 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 Organisational and Economic Problems of the Holy See in 1981.
In 1994 he attended the Special Assembly of the World Synod of Bishops for Africa, in Vatican City where he gave a paper, Evangelisation as Justice and Peace. He started his speech by saying he was speaking "in the name of the Kenyan Episcopal Conference".
Excerpts from the paper indicate: "Peoples on the move cannot be ignored. The displaced persons in Kenya are those citizens rendered homeless on account of tribal violence. Urbanisation is another major cause.
"The victims of discrimination, I think, are particularly those citizens who have to move from place to place in search of employment and this may be due to nepotism, religious discrimination or corruption in the administration of the country.
"For these people it is difficult to establish stable contacts. For those who already believe, many are in great danger of losing their faith.
"It becomes more difficult when the situation is politically originated and perpetuated, as is the case in Kenya now.
"Here the bishops have exercised their prophetic role and have spoken out to the government. It is not easy."
At the Synod, Otunga made several recommendations. He urged Secam to "come up with a guideline to work and to feel and follow up even more in solidarity to obstacles, particularly political ones, against evangelisation as justice and peace".
When Cardinal Otunga retired as archbishop of Nairobi in 1997, he chose as his retirement home a house for the poor, the Nyumba ya Wazee run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Nairobi.
This was true to his selfless lifestyle as archbishop for he never chose to live in luxury and always implored his priests to beware of materialism as an obstacle to the gospel witness.
As Kenyans remembered the great clergy who led the church for 28 years as a cardinal, many are calling for the present clergy to follow the footprints of Cardinal Otunga.
Fr Peter Githinji of Nanyuki Parish, the Cardinal should be made a saint, as he is a role model to many priests.
"I admired his humility and I am not ashamed to say that he is my role model and I will be happy to hear that he has been made a saint," said Fr Githinji.
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