By KPC Reporter
When the history of Kisii Town is finally written, the authors may have to allocate some pages for one Thomas Oresi, now 86, for the assignment to be complete.
A former councilor and retired politician, Oresi contributed significantly to the wellbeing of residents during his hay days.
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One of the landmarks that speak about the old man’s contribution to society is the Oresi Sub County Hospital, which serves hundreds of residents.
On October 20, 2024, he was honoured as a national hero by the National Heroes Council in appreciation of his philanthropic work in the health sector.
The council stated that Mr Oresi “has helped many vulnerable members of the community following the construction, refurbishment and equipping of health centers and support to orphans, street children and widows.”
His efforts have continued to impact the community.
Mr Oresi conceived the idea of a hospital, and constructed the initial buildings as a mason and thereafter worked as its manager before later handing it over to the government.
Whereas, he opened it as a dispensary several years back with just a few infrastructure, staff and equipment, today, the facility has grown after the government helped construct more buildings, added more workers and equipped it.
Many patients stream in need of medical interventions and advice, a testament of just how the facility is impactful in their lives.
Mr Oresi has no formal training, himself not having gone past primary school, but the locals fondly refer to him as daktari (doctor).
He says his parents had no means of supporting his education past primary school, so he, and some of his peers from the community, set out for Molo, Nakuru County in 1952.
That year, the colonial government was clamping down on young Kikuyus linked to the Mau Mau.
The arrest of the Kikuyu freedom fighters left the White Settlers in Nakuru without labourers, hence Mr Oresi got an opportunity to work in the farms.
“We were employed to plough with tractors and operate other farm tools. I gained hands-on experience on various crafts including building and construction,” recounted Mr Oresi.
In 1955, he returned to Kisii and was briefly employed to shepherd cattle for some old man in the village before he was employed as a driver in the public works department where he was earning Sh42 a month.
His driving prowess at the public works sprung him to fame, earning him the trust of the renowned Paramount Chief Musa Nyandusi.
“He (Nyandusi) said that he wanted me to be taking him home because I was honest and swift and not a drunkard and I took up the offer,” he recalled.
His dedication to duty was spotted by several others, he says, and he ended up as the driver of the hospital van.
Part of his duty was to transport patients who had been referred to King George Hospital (present day Kenyatta National Hospital).
While at it, he made friendships with the hospital’s staff – some of whom being whites from Britain – and the current Nyamira County deputy governor Dr James Gesami who was then serving the hospital as a clerk.
The friendship saw his daughter Mary Oresi get an opportunity to relocate to Britain for further studies and she lives to date.
His connections with the hospital and its leadership and the trust between them enabled him to have access to medicine, which he would carry some back home for sick community members who needed them.
“I got the experience from picking drugs from the hospital and people started calling me daktari. People would send me to purchase medicine for them from Nairobi,” he said.
He saw an opportunity and in 1958, resigned from government and started a pharmacy business; becoming the first African to establish a pharmacy in Kisii town.
Mr Oresi’s popularity grew due to the operations of the pharmacy and he would later be elected as a councilor.
“As soon as I was elected, women and other members of the community approached me to construct a dispensary for them. As councilors we did not have much money, so I approached my daughter in Britain who agreed to support the idea,” he recalled.
This was during the time when highland malaria had peaked and the ministry of health asked councilors to identify a piece of land and build a house (health facility).
Once built, the government would send staff and stock medicine.
The masonry skills he had gathered from the white settler fields came in handy as he constructed the structure by himself.
The facility served members of the community and his good initiative spread even further across Gusiiland.
Others approached him to help them construct similar facilities, a request that he obliged to joyously.
As such, he contributed to the construction of more than 10 hospitals in the region, such as in Bobaracho, Nyamesio, Gesarara, Keumbu and Getare.
But Oresi Health Centre outshone every other, including the government facility, and had to handle heavy workloads.
“This happened because Oresi had the highest sanitation standards and I knew where to get medicine. I would even go to Uganda and Dar es Salaam to obtain them. So many patients came here and treatment was free,” he said.
Particularly, the hot water shower that he had installed at Oresi attracted many patients who abhorred the mandatory fetching of water from a nearby river in order to access service at a government hospital.
Also, the young men whom he had helped secure training opportunities at the King George Hospital in Nairobi had come back to offer their expertise at Oresi.
“Dr Gesami helped me get opportunities to train,” he recalled.
From routine returns, the British Ambassador of that time noticed that there was a heavy workload at Oresi and made a point of visiting the facility.
The diplomat, he said, was amazed at operations at Oresi and he got an opportunity to benchmark for two weeks in British hospitals to help improve services even further.
Mr Oresi would in 1968 hand over the health facility to the government.
From dispensary level, the facility is now a sub-county hospital.
Mr Oresi is among the over 140 Kenyans, alive and dead, who were feted last year for their heroic contributions to society.
