THOUSANDS OF MOURNERS AT THE BURIAL OF FORMER SONYSUGAR MANAGING DIRECTOR AT HIS NYAMIRA HOME IN BONDO DISTRICT.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Bondo Town.
THOUSANDS of grief stricken mourners converged in Nyamira village, Central Sakwa, Bondo district over the weekend for the burial of the former SONYSUGASR managing Director.
Ambrose James Otieno, 60 died suddenly in Kisumu two week ago after short illness. He had fallen ill and was rushed to the Aga Khan Hospital by his wife Debora Otieno for treatment. He later passed away.
Born on 13th January, 1950, in Kenya’s coastal City of Mombasa, the late Ambrose was the third son in a family of nine children, who include seven brothers and two sisters.
He attended Makuma HGM primary and intermediate school in Mombasa, where he sat for KAPE in 1963, and proceeded to St. George Secondary School in Giriama, where he sat and passed his Cambridge School Certificate, and obtained a division one in 1967.
While learning at St. George he excelled in sports, particularly table tennis and basketball, where he was the team captain. He then joined the Strathmore college in Nairobi for his “A” levels, and obtained sufficient marks for admission to the University of Nairobi. After only one year at the University, Ambrose won the Indian Government scholarship to study a degree course in technology, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay {Mumbai}.
Upon his return, Ambrose joined the SONYSUGAR as a trainee manager, and rose through the ranks to become the factory manager, production Manager and finally the Managing Director, the post where he was forced out prematurely in 2006, while he was on the way to turning the financially strapped government owned sugar company to profit making. Many observers saw his dismissal as “malicious dismissal with political overtone”.
Ambrose departure from SONYSUGAR left a management leadership vacuum, which is yet to be sorted out to-date.
Among the mourners were the Bondo M,P Dr Oburu Oginga, whose parents home, Kang’o Nyamira Ka-Jaramogi is only a stone throw away, former cabinet Minister George Ochillo Ayacko, and many leading personalities and professionals from a cross-section of Luo-Nyanza..
Speaker after speakers heaped a lot of praise on Ambrose Otieno for his selflessness, simplicity and generosity kind. They said the former MD helped a lot of people in his own community and beyond. He was a hardworking man and an achiever who preferred to see everything that comes across him done in the finest finishing touches and was humble to everybody.
Many farmers within Awendo and its environs still remember Ambrose as the manager who was readily ever willing to sit down with farmers and listen to their grievances. He used to call for public Baraza, during which time, farmers and top managers at the facility would exchange views in an open atmosphere. His former workmate described him as a down to earth and workaholic man.
He is survived by his wife Debora Otieno and two teenage daughters, Catherine and Dorothy, and his parents, Mzee Lawrence Joseph Wanjira and Mama Leonida Nyawanda Andiwo.
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leooderaomolo@yahoo.com