Lovingly known as “Bishop Isaac”
25 January 1955 — 6 November 2026 · aged 71
Pentecostal bishop who planted twelve churches and fed Bungoma's widows
Bungoma, Kenya Born in Kimilili, Bungoma County Resting at Church grounds, Glory Harvest Pentecostal Assemblies, KanduyiWith humility and faith in the Lord we announce the call home of Bishop ISAAC WEKESA SIMIYU, Founder and Presiding Bishop of Glory Harvest Pentecostal Assemblies, on 6th November 2026 at Bungoma County Referral Hospital. Husband to Pastor Beatrice Nafula; father to Daniel, Ruth, Joseph and others; father-in-law to many; grandfather to eighteen. Family and friends meet daily at the church compound, Kanduyi, at 5.00 pm. Cortege leaves Bungoma Funeral Home on Friday 27th November for a funeral service at Glory Harvest Main Sanctuary, then interment in the church grounds. M-Pesa Paybill 355902, Account BISHOP. Well done, good and faithful servant.
Bishop Isaac Wekesa Simiyu said he heard the call to ministry while weighing sugarcane. He was a clerk at the Nzoia Sugar weighbridge in 1988 when a stranger told him that his scales were fair but his heart was elsewhere. Within a year he had resigned, borrowed a plastic tent and begun preaching at the Bungoma market, and within thirty years that tent had become Glory Harvest Pentecostal Assemblies, a network of twelve churches across Western Kenya.
He was born in Kimilili in 1955, the fourth of eleven children of a maize farmer. He studied at Kimilili Secondary, trained at a Bible college in Nairobi on weekends, and married Beatrice Nafula in 1982. She became his co-pastor, and together they raised six children in the church compound at Kanduyi, sharing it with whoever arrived hungry.
What Bungoma remembers is his kitchen. Every Wednesday he fed forty widows from a cauldron of ugali and sukuma wiki, and he insisted that the cooks sit down and eat first. He paid school fees for orphans, built a clinic extension for the church dispensary and led a famous peace walk between rival villages during the 2007 troubles.
Bishop Isaac loved Luhya gospel guitar, boiled sweet potatoes at dawn and a good argument about Bible translation. His sermons were short and his prayers were long. He suffered a stroke in October and died at Bungoma County Referral Hospital on 6 November 2026, with his family singing beside him.
He leaves his wife, Pastor Beatrice, six children, eighteen grandchildren and a congregation of thousands.
“Hunger has no denomination.”
Friday, 27 November 2026 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarComing together to honour Isaac and support the family.
Funeral arrangements, burial site preparation and hosting visiting clergy.
Daily at the church compound, Kanduyi, 5.00 pm
Contact: Daniel Barasa Simiyu
$19 raised of $5,426.36
Twelve churches pooling funds and organising the service and delegations.
Main Sanctuary, Tuesdays and Thursdays 5.30 pm
Contact: Pastor Moses Barasa
$142.50 raised of $3,875.97
Fellow clergy arranging the tent, sound and a joint choir.
Bungoma Town Pastors' Office, Mondays 10.00 am
Contact: Rev. Samuel Wafula
$9.50 raised of $1,550.39
Former workmates contributing to the funeral.
Sugar Club, Webuye Road, Fridays 3.00 pm
Contact: Peter Simiyu Wanjala
$61.75 raised of $775.19
Sign in to start a committee or join one to support the family.
Memorial fund
Support the funeral and keep the Wednesday Widows' Meal programme running in his memory.
$266 raised of $5,500
5%10 recent contributions
Anonymous gave $14.25 · 4h ago
“From your old classmates.”
Fatuma Hassan gave $4.75 · 23h ago
Mercy Karimi Mwiti gave $4.75 · 3d ago
Ruth Nekesa Simiyu gave $19 · 3d ago
“Pole sana kwa familia.”
Hassan Omar gave $9.50 · 4d ago
Secondary education
Kimilili Secondary School1969 – 1972 · Kimilili
Led the school choir and debating society.
Weighbridge clerk
Nzoia Sugar Company1976 – 1988 · Bungoma
Known for fair scales and a quiet testimony.
Married Beatrice Nafula
1982 · Bungoma
A partnership in ministry of forty-four years.
Founder and Presiding Bishop
Glory Harvest Pentecostal Assemblies1989 – 2026 · Bungoma
Planted twelve churches across Bungoma, Kakamega and Busia.
Wednesday Widows' Meal programme
Glory Harvest1994 – 2026 · Kanduyi
Fed forty widows every week for over thirty years.
Peace Ambassador
Bungoma Interdenominational Clergy Fellowship2008 · Bungoma
For leading the 2007 peace walk.
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Isaac is survived by
6 people have shared a memory of Isaac.
Knew Isaac? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tributeDaughter
Baba, you taught us to eat last and pray first, and to never let a hungry person leave our compound. We will keep the cauldron on the fire every Wednesday. Rest well.
Friend from Nzoia Sugar
We weighed cane together in the eighties. I told him he would never leave. He grinned and said the cane was only the beginning of the harvest. He was right.
Niece in Dallas
Uncle Isaac paid for my nursing school when no one else would. I now work in an ICU in Dallas and I pray with my patients because of him. He lives in every person I help.
Pastor, Glory Harvest Kimilili
He ordained me in a tent with a borrowed shirt and told me that hunger was a better sermon than thunder. I have fed my own congregation every Sunday since.
Chairman, Bungoma Clergy Fellowship
In 2007 he walked between two angry villages with nothing but a Bible and a loudspeaker. Nobody threw a stone. Bungoma may not know how many lives he saved that week.
Widow, Wednesday Meal member
After my husband died, nobody asked how I would eat. Bishop Isaac sent a boy with a basin of ugali every Wednesday for nineteen years. The Lord was feeding me through his hands.
