Many people who interacted with Maurice Michael Cardinal Otunga in Kenya had a sense of the Servant of God’s sanctity.

For Margaret Roche, a Kenyan of Irish descent who co-authored the book, Cardinal Otunga: a Gift of Grace, the Servant of God was a holy man who lived in humility and simplicity, enduring  many challenges as a young man called to the Priesthood from a deeply traditional African family.

Asked whether it ever occurred to her that the man he was writing about would one day be considered for sainthood, Roche responds with conviction, “Yes, absolutely”, and adds, “He was (a saint), already.”

“I’m not sure I have interacted with really holy people, but he was definitely a very holy person,” the Irish Educationist who has taught in top Kenyan schools since the late 60s when she first arrived in Kenya says.

In an interview with ACI Africa on Monday, September 22, Roche shared her memories with Cardinal Otunga who she described as a model for the young people confronted by the very social vices that the late Cardinal fought passionately against. Social issues such as attacks against the family. She also paid tribute to her co-author, Margaret Ogola, a Kenyan Catholic novelist famed for her book, “The River and the Source”.