Kenya Stockholm Blog

Mr. Michael Osumba, an elderly Kenya-Stockholmer, is dead. According to information obtained by KSB, Mr. Osumba died of a heart attack on Saturday, 27th July 2013. Reports say that on the fateful day, the late Osumba was found in a bad condition in his house by some friends who had gone to visit him. The friends then raised the alarm with personnel of the nursing home he was staying and an ambulance was called. However, when the medics examined him, their conclusion was that Mr. Osumba had already passed away.

Prior to the discovery of the body, a close family member who visited him on Thursday, July 25th, told KSB that Osumba had been coughing “very much” while he is also said to have had some digestive problems.

On Wednesday, July 24, Mr. Osumba called Jared Odero, a friend, and informed him that he was packing his belongings because he was now moving from the nursing home to his own apartment after making progress health wise. It was therefore a big shock to Jared this morning when he received the news that Osumba had passed away. The same day, Mr. Osumba called KSB and said that he would soon invite friends to his new home for a “house warming”.

Although Mr. Osumba passed away on Saturday morning, the news was only broken to the family today, Monday 29th. On Saturday evening, KSB received intelligence that Mr. Osumba had “suffered a heart attack”. The report arrived as Kenyans and friends were condoling the family of Pamela Omiti who had lost her sister in Kenya. A top KSB staffer then called the family immediately to establish his real condition but the family member who picked the phone said that he was doing well. “We received information that he had fallen ill but that he was now doing well”, the member told KSB.  Incidentally, Mr. Osumba had already passed away that morning although the Swedish authorities had not yet informed the family. The family member promised to keep KSB updated, only to learn this morning that Osumba passed away on Saturday.

Mr. Osumba was a very political and intellectual Kenyan who analyzed Kenyan and international politics from an ideological position. During many interractions with him, he threw a lot of light on the unwritten history of the Republic of Kenya especially during the 1960s. He was a very close friend of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who assisted him in the early 70s to travel to the former Soviet Union for further education. When the government of the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta started frustrating Kenyan communists who had studied in the former USSR, Mr. Osumba moved to Sweden as he studied the situation in Kenya. This is how he came to settle in Sweden. Mr. Osumba was 70 years old.

KSB sends deep condolence to the family of the late Osumba whose sudden death has come as a real shock to both the family and all those who knew him. Relatives, friends, sympathizers and well-wishers are meeting daily at the family residence at Grumsgatan 4 in Farsta where an “Open House” has been set up to condole with the bereaved family. Mr. Osumba is survived by four children, Teresa 39, Jacob 20, Bryan 15 and Tabitha 13. The late Kenyan has one grandchild. Further information can be obtained through the family at: 0760632753. May God rest Osumba’s soul in eternal peace.

Okoth Osewe

Related: KSB Entries on Michael Osumba