Isaac Wekesa Wafula
Lovingly known as “Mwalimu Wafula”
12 March 1950 — 3 July 2023 · aged 73
Principal who taught Kakamega's children to read, to argue and to arrive on time
Kakamega, Kenya Born in Malava, Kakamega County Resting at Family home, Malava, Kakamega CountyAbout Isaac
At Mukhonje Secondary School the bell was a length of old railway line hung from a guava tree, and for twenty-two years it was struck by hand, at exactly six-fifty every morning, by the principal himself. Isaac Wekesa Wafula believed that punctuality was the first form of respect, and a generation of Kakamega children learned to run the last hundred metres to school the way other children learn to sing.
He was born in 1950 at Malava, the third of nine children of a Friends Church lay preacher, and grew up herding goats, reading by paraffin lamp and winning every spelling contest in the district. A place at Kakamega School led to Kenyatta University College, where he trained as a teacher of history and literature. For twelve years he taught at his old school, where former pupils still remember his habit of closing the textbook halfway through a lesson, telling a story from his own village childhood, and asking what it meant. In 1990 he became principal of Mukhonje, a struggling day school with a leaking roof and big ambitions, and over two decades he turned it into a place that took students to the national drama festival four times and to university in numbers nobody had expected.
Away from school he kept bees, grew sugarcane he never sold, and cooked a Sunday chicken stew that his family insists has never been equalled. He was a lifelong AFC Leopards supporter who endured the club's decline with the patience of a man who taught history. He married Mary Nasimiyu in 1976, and together they raised three children and sheltered, by the family's count, eleven other children who needed a bed near a school.
Isaac died peacefully in July 2023 after a short illness, with the radio tuned to the football. He leaves his wife, three children, six grandchildren and a very large number of former pupils who still arrive on time.
“Be on time. It is the cheapest way to tell someone you respect them.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Malava, Kakamega County
- Resting place
- Family home, Malava, Kakamega County
- Passed away
- 3 July 2023, Kakamega
Funeral Service
Thursday, 13 July 2023 at 11:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Kakamega School
Kakamega School1964 – 1969 · Kakamega
Won the school's prize for English composition three years running.
Bachelor of Education (Arts)
Kenyatta University College1973 – 1976 · Nairobi
Trained as a teacher of History and Literature.
Married Mary Nasimiyu
1976 · Malava
A marriage of forty-seven years, and a home open to children who needed a place to study.
History and Literature Teacher
Kakamega School1977 – 1989 · Kakamega
Taught history by storytelling and discussion.
Principal
Mukhonje Secondary School1990 – 2012 · Kakamega
Led the school to four national drama festival appearances.
Founding member
Mwalimu SACCO, Kakamega branch1985 – 2023 · Kakamega
Helped hundreds of teachers save for homes and school fees.
Teacher of the Year, Kakamega District
Ministry of Education1998 · Kakamega
For excellence in teaching and school leadership.
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Family & connections
Isaac is survived by
- Mary Nasimiyu Wafula· Spouse
- Dr. Brian Simiyu Wafula· Son
- Janet Nekesa Wafula· Daughter
- Peter Wanjala Wafula· Son
- 6 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Isaac.
Knew Isaac? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
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Former student, now a teacher in Ohio
I teach in an American public school now, and every morning I stand at my classroom door and greet each child by name. I learned that from Mwalimu Wafula. He did it at Mukhonje's gate with a bell in his hand and a joke ready.
- MW
Friend from the Friends Church choir
Isaac sang tenor with a tremor that made the whole choir smile. After church he would hand out honey from his own hives to the elderly and say it was 'the pastor's special blessing'. We shall bring honey to his grave.
- DW
Son
Dad corrected my grammar until the day he died, including on the phone from his hospital bed. I think it was his way of saying he was still here. I will keep editing my own emails in his voice for the rest of my life.
- AN
Sheltered in the Wafula home as a girl
My parents died when I was twelve. Mwalimu and Mama Mary gave me a bed, a desk and a place at the table without ever calling it charity. I am a nurse because of them. They taught me that you help people so quietly that they never feel owed.
- MW
Deputy principal under him at Mukhonje
For twenty-two years I watched him ring that bell. Once the bell rope snapped in a storm, so he walked the compound with a metal pot and a spoon, banging it, soaked, at six-fifty exactly. That is the most disciplined thing I have ever seen.
- JB
Former pupil at Kakamega School
Mwalimu Wafula taught us the Berlin Conference using a bag of groundnuts, and we have never forgotten who got what. I am now a lawyer in Nairobi. Whenever I walk into court on time, I give him a small silent salute.
