Majority of Kenyans know Okiya Omtatah as a city activist, who is always in court making applications and appeals against the government and other entities.
Others assume he is an advocate, which is not correct. However, they are right to the extent that he has devoted his life to playing a major role as a defender of public interest.
In an interview with a local daily, Omtatah said contrary to the thoughts of many, he is a mechanical engineer, a job he learnt at the Kenya Polytechnic, hoping to get a job in the Nyayo Pioneer Car industry.
He also divulged that he was interested in priesthood and was actually in the senior seminary, before illness cut short his journey.
“I developed grand mal, epilepsy. I was told you couldn’t become a priest with epilepsy because what happens if you got an attack during the Eucharist? And it made sense,” he said.
Omtatah noted that medical interventions from the Aga Khan Hospital did not offer any help, and instead, he would suffer up to three fits a day.
This was before a young man and a school teacher in his rural home in Kwang'amor Village in Teso South, Busia County came to his rescue.
“He charged us Sh1,500 and after my father agreed, he put me on medication on December 17, 1987 for 12 days. He told me I was cured. Since then, I have not had a fit to this day,” he told the Star.
After this, he left the seminary for the polytechnic. But again, upon graduating from the polytechnic, he turned into an author.
According to him, though he never succeeded in his dream to be a priest, he is now doing it through activism.
However, this has not come without consequences, including violent attacks, one of which saw him lose 10 teeth.
“I take this as a form of apostolate in the belief that if the law was fully obeyed, we would all live in paradise,” he told the paper.