By Dr. Kireki Omanwa
In a small Kenyan household where prayer was the fabric of family life, a young boy named Kireki Omanwa listened to his mother’s devotions and quietly dreamed of saving lives. He didn’t yet know how.
Decades later, he was standing in a delivery room, gloved hands at ready, as he helped bring a child into the world. Today, Dr. Omanwa is a leading consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, a senior lecturer at the University of Nairobi, and the president of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS).
He has become not just a healer in the operating room, but one of the country’s strongest champions for maternal health – insisting that no woman should die simply for giving life.
His journey to that destination was a series of unprecedented turns, lit by a ‘light-bulb moment’ that changed everything.
“Before I went to study, I had some interactions with some senior colleagues who used to come to church, and I envisioned myself being a pediatrician because they were pediatricians, so, even when I went to medical school, the first thought was that once I finish, I was going to do pediatrics, but it did not work,” he says.
A desire for hands-on work led him to volunteer in a hospital’s surgery department, where he fell in love with the precision of scalpels and sutures.
He was so committed that the head of the department offered to train him as a general surgeon, but destiny had other plans.
During his internship, while rotating through different medical departments, he found himself assisting in a patient’s delivery.
The moment he successfully delivered the baby and skillfully performed a minor repair, something clicked – attracted by the primal, fragile moment of childbirth.
“I think that was a ‘light-bulb moment,’ he recalls. “It was what I wanted to do.”
He never looked back.
He left behind his dream of being a general surgeon and embraced the dual-specialty world of obstetrics and gynaecology, a field that allowed him to perform complex surgeries and champion the health of women and children.
A Global Perspective, A Local Impact
Dr Omanwa’s journey to becoming a pillar of Kenyan medicine took him far from home. He received a scholarship to study in Poland, a country he knew little about beyond its capital, and where the Pope at the time was from.
This international experience, which included working in the UK and London, exposed him to diverse healthcare systems and ignited a new passion: fertility medicine.
He was inspired by a colleague’s dedication to IVF, a field he now practices, offering hope to couples trying to conceive.
After five years abroad, he and his wife made a conscious decision to return home, and he quickly rose through the ranks at Kenyatta Referral Hospital and the University of Nairobi.
His passion was noticed by Prof Ann Kihara, the President of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), who brought him into KOGS council.
His rise to the post of president of KOGS is a testament to his drive and commitment to making a tangible difference in women’s health.
The Pillar of Society: Saving Mothers
What drives Dr. Omwana is not prestige but urgency. “Every newborn deserves to have a mother,” he passionately states.
He believes that a mother is the pillar of a family and society, and her loss has devastating, multigenerational consequences, perpetuating a cycle of poverty.
“We want every mother to go home healthy, happy, and with a healthy baby. I will quote the late Prof Mahmoud Fathallah, a former president of FIGO, who said women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat, but they are dying because societies are yet to decide their lives are worth saving, and that is why I have made a conscious decision that their lives are worth saving,” he says.
This conviction inspired him and his colleagues to create the “Run for Her” campaign this September, an initiative designed to raise awareness about preventable maternal deaths, particularly from postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).
The campaign’s message is simple yet powerful: these deaths are preventable, and it is a problem that can be solved with the right resources, education, and political will.
The run has expanded beyond Nairobi, with plans for events in multiple counties, including Homabay, Eldoret, and Kajiado, as well as Narok, Embu, and Uasin Gishu. Additionally, there is a collaboration with healthcare colleagues across Africa.
“We also thought of reaching out to other colleagues across the borders, so we are in talks with Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mali, and Nigeria.”
Dr Omanwa’s vision for a healthier Kenya is not just about medical care, but about a fundamental shift of values.
The struggle is not just medical but moral. He urges the government to honor its Abuja Declaration commitment of spending 15 per cent of GDP on health, with funds ring-fenced for reproductive services.
He presses for quality antenatal care to address issues like anaemia, which contribute to hemorrhage, and a more equitable distribution of healthcare professionals across the country.
The Wealth of a Nation
This is the heart of his crusade: that true wealth is measured not in skyscrapers or highways, but in whether mothers survive childbirth and babies thrive in their first breaths of life.
“If we do not take care of our mothers, it does not matter how many bypasses we have built; we are a poor country,” he says.
His call to action is a plea for the nation to return to its basics; to invest in the health of mothers, so they can raise healthy children who will become the nation’s future wealth.
Even with his demanding schedule, Dr Omanwa carves out space for the ordinary pleasures that anchor him. He loves to read, often juggling several books at once, and his current read, “Surrounded by Idiots,” offers a humorous escape.
He also finds joy and community in church and swims at least once a week to clear his mind, and every once in a while, “I sit alone and think about nothing,” he laughs.
These moments of quiet reflection and self-care are vital for a man devoted to making a lasting, transformative impact on the lives of others.
Good men and women are fighting that battle every day in Kenya. One of them is Dr. Kireki Omanwa, a surgeon shaped by prayer, propelled by purpose, and unwilling to accept a world where women die simply for giving life.
Dr Kireki leads Kenya’s gynaecologists and obstetricians as the President Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS)