Celebrated Author Grace Ogot Is Dead

Mrs. Ogot, a respected author and a former Gem Member of Parliament and Assistant Minister for culture, is the wife to educationist Prof Bethwell Allan Ogot.

The 85 year old Ogot died Wednesday mid-morning while being taken to hospital after a short illness. This is according to her husband.

Ogot is a celebrated bestselling author of The Graduate, The Island of Tears, Land Without Thunder and The Other Woman: selected short stories among other books.

Ogot attended Ng’iya Girls’ School and Butere High School before undergoing training as a nurse at the Nursing Training Hospital in Uganda before moving to London where she worked at the St. Thomas Hospital for Mothers and Babies.

She later returned to the African nursing profession in 1958, working at the Maseno Hospital before joining the Makerere University College as a member of staff in Student Health Services.

In addition to her experience in healthcare, Ogot gained experience in multiple different areas, working for the British Broadcasting Corporation as a script-writer.

She later started working as a community development officer in Kisumu County and as a public relations officer for the Air India Corporation of East Africa.

In 1975, she worked as a Kenyan delegate to the General Assembly of the United Nations before joining the Kenyan delegation to UNESCO as a member a year later.

In 1983, she became one of the few women to serve as a Member of Parliament before being appointed to Cabinet by the then President Daniel Arap Toroitich Moi.

May she Rest in Peace.