Celebrating Sister Mary Kemunto Mamwacha

A Good Soul

Sister Mary Kemunto Mamwacha
June 22, 1968 – July 15, 2014

Mary Kemunto Mamwacha was born on June 22, 1968, the fifth born of twelve children of Alexander Mamwacha and Elizabeth Omwenga. She attended three elementary schools: Nyaore Primary Standard 1–3, Soko Primary Standard 4–5 and Nyatieko Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Primary Standard 6–8. She completed her secondary education at Gekano Girls Secondary School in 1989. After Form 4 at Gekano Girls, Mary left home for Nairobi where she worked as nursery teacher before she joined St. Augustine Teacher Training College which she completed September 1992. During her teaching ministry, Mary earned her Bachelor of Education in 2009 and went on to study for her Masters of Education in Guidance and Counseling in 2011.

Mary claimed that her vocation developed in Standard 6 after watching sisters during Mass. It was then that she joined a parish vocation group and started attending meetings every Saturday and Sunday. While at Gekano Girls, Mary and her friends shared a lot about their future and she became interested in the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND). She was influenced by the work of SSND at Gekano and started communicating with the SSND vocation director, Sister Roxanne Schares. Mary became an affiliate while she was at St. Augustine’s, joined the postulancy January 22, 1994, was received as a novice on May 29, 1995, made her first profession on April 19, 1997 and her perpetual profession on December 30, 2002.

Sister Mary Mamwacha spent the first 2 years of her ministry as a teacher at Gekano Primary School from 1997-1999. From there she taught at St. Mary’s Primary Boarding School, Nyabururu, Kisii for 8 years. Then from August 2008 to June 2009 Sister Mary participated in the SSND International Program studying German in Germany followed by some months in Rome. From 2010 until January 2013, she taught at Bar-Ogwal Primary School in Kisumu, became the Deputy Head and then the Head of the school. Due to her health needs, in January 2013 she was transferred to Jamhuri Primary School, Nairobi to be closer to her doctor.

One of Sister Mary’s greatest gifts was her ability to make and nurture friendships. She was a person of “connections” and had the amazing quality of reaching out to so many. Of note was her deep care for disadvantaged girls. Sister Mary reached out to them in love and helped them to find the support they needed. She also had a great love of photography and cooking. While she struggled with cancer for over three years, she did not become self-focused. Through her deep faith in God she continued to reach out, particularly to those in need to offer them her presence, her comfort and her prayers.

Sister Mary loved community life and made it a priority in her life. She gave of herself to each and every member, had a personal relationship with them and served the community by taking her responsibilities seriously, up to the end, even when she was hospitalized.

Sister Mary Kemunto Mamwacha died of cancer at the Nairobi Hospital, Kenya on July 15, 2014 at the age of 46, in her 17th year as a professed School Sister of Notre Dame.

At the time of her death, Sister Mary had been preceded in death by her father Alexander Mamwacha, her sisters Hellen Moraa and Teresa Kerubo, and her brothers Peter Matoya, Edward Makemba and Videlis Onsongo. She was survived by her mother, Elizabeth Omwenga and her siblings, Robina Kwamboka, Hellen Moraa, Samuel Manyange, Redemptor Kerubo, Sister Teresia Mamwacha, SSND and Rose Nyanchera.