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Tribute to Prof Norah Khadzini Olembo, the ‘graceful genius’
The late Prof Norah Olembo was a highly valued member of the University of Nairobi fraternity.
What you need to know:
- Norah was authentic with people, saying what needed to be said because it was good for the relationship and for the soul.
- She understood that true leadership lies not in self-aggrandisation, but in unlocking the potential of those around you.
It was with great sadness that I learned of the passing of our dearly loved Prof Norah Khadzini Olembo.
Today, as I reflect on Norah’s life of extraordinary achievement, no two words seem as fitting to describe this amazing woman as ‘graceful genius’. Norah was a beautiful woman, inside and out. She was a gentle caring mother, a loyal friend to me and to many, and an academician par excellence.
She was my respectful student and I am proud that she called me Mwalimu. Norah was authentic with people, saying what needed to be said because it was good for the relationship and for the soul. She offered valuable advice to her family, to her rural community, to her students and academic colleagues, and to local and international leadership in equal measure.
Norah’s contributions to society and achievements are too many to list. The foundations of her career in science were rooted in Butere Girls High School, where I taught her and nurtured a team of visionary women leaders.
These great female minds included Ms Argwings Kodhek, Ms Odero Ojowi, Justice Effie Owour, Justice Joyce Aluoch, Cannon Dr Mary Okello, Representative Orie Rogo, Naomi Were, Margaret Omuronji, Jemima Kaisha, Regina Ole Ndiemma.
If these great ladies are reading this, please stand to your feet for a minute, in honour of Late Prof Norah Olembo. Any other ‘Butere girl’, please raise your hands in honour of the late Norah Olembo.
In those early years, the late 1950s and early 1960s, as I taught the young Butere girls to lay the foundations of the intellectual giants they became, I found early evidence in Norah of a woman who understood that true leadership lies not in self-aggrandisation, but in unlocking the potential of those around you.
Chiromo Campus
In the 1980s, with her thought leadership on the relationship between innovation and sovereignty, Norah offered confident, yet gentle reassurance to her students and to colleagues – in the Biochemistry Department at Chiromo Campus at the University of Nairobi and outside.
Her contributions encouraged those who may otherwise have been drawn to stagnancy, to newness in the academic setting. This newness called creativity and innovation has now been accepted as integral to the consolidation of knowledge in institutions of higher learning. Norah was a highly valued member of the University of Nairobi fraternity.
Moving to the Pan African and International stage, at the many organisations and bodies of which she was a valued member, she demonstrated her natural gift for communicating to achieve consensus around scientific problems that had left others bedevilled.
Later in her life, Norah became an acclaimed African resource for intellectual property rights in Bio-medical sciences. Her contributions to Science through her life’s work will live in to posterity.
A beautiful genius, indeed. Yet, Norah’s true genius lay not in her towering intellect, per se, but rather in allowing her humility, her warmth and her gentle humour guide her every thought and deed. Intellect alone would have carried her far, and would still have touched the lives of many.
Leadership roles
But woven throughout every strand in the tapestry of Norah’s life was her love for her family, her community and her concern for the prosperity of future generations. She had several outstanding caring and leadership roles. She ran for political office under my political party, the Labour Party of Kenya, and became a household name in Emuhaya. She was an accomplished farmer and her zero grazing efforts brought food to many rural households.
Her style of grassroots development oriented politics is highly sought after and she will be missed by many in the political arena. Her greatest caring role was in marriage. She married Prof Reuben Olembo in late 1960s and the two were a perfect match. The late Reuben Olembo was a warm, experienced scientist with an unparalleled senior United Nations career.
As UNEP Director General, Mr Olembo was driven by the compulsion to promote careful, fruitful stewardship of our planet, Earth. Indeed, the profound sense of humanity shared by both Prof Reuben and Norah and their love of Christ caused these two academic giants to excel at every turn. The lives of these two giants bring to mind the writings of St Paul: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.’ (Romans 12:2)
Soils of innovation
Norah was so transformed. Her beautiful spirit will live on through her children; Kenneth, Lynette and Lilian.
So, as we bid our final farewell to this beautiful genius, we are reminded that a life lived to its fullest is a life of virtue, grace and kindness, for these are the nutrients that enrich the soils of innovation, creativity and prosperity.
Now my prayer is that Norah will rest in peace, knowing that she excelled in all that she did and that her children will be fine. We shall see you again, dearest Norah at Jesus’s feet.
Prof Ojiambo is the chairperson of the Council of the University of Nairobi.
