Dr Ogola, a paediatrician and medical director of Cottolengo HIV and AIDS orphans Hospice, died September 22, at the age of 53.
Dr Ogola was a celebrated Kenyan author of three novels, The River and the Source that won the Jomo Kenyatta Literature Award and Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in Africa in 1995.
The two other novels are I Swear by Apollo, a novel that examines issues of medical ethics and the question of authentic identity and Place of Destiny, a novel about a woman dying of cancer.
The late writer also authored a handbook for parents titled Educating in Human Love, as well as A Gift of Grace, a biography of the first Catholic bishop, and cardinal in Kenya, Cardinal Maurice Michael Otunga.
The late Dr Ogola was Vice-President of Family Life Counselling in Kenya and National Executive Secretary of the Commission for Health and Family Life at the Kenya Episcopal Conference (KEC) from 1998 to 2002.
From 2002 to 2004, she was the Country Coordinator of the Hope for African Children Initiative, a partnership of several international NGOs, which included Plan, CARE, Save the Children, Society for Women and AIDS, World Conference For Religion and Peace and World Vision.
The late Ogola helped found and manage the SOS HIV/AIDS Clinic, which is for People Living With Aids. In 1999, she received the Families Award for Humanitarian Service of the World Congress of Families in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr Ogola leaves behind a husband, four children, and two foster children.
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