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Embu's retired Bishop Gideon Ireri dies in hospital

 


Retired Bishop Gideon Ireri died Thursday evening at Frevane private hospital in Embu County, to where he was admitted earlier in the day.

Prior to his retirement, Ireri was the first bishop of the Mbeere diocese of the Anglican Church of Kenya.

"He succumbed to a disease he had been suffering from since 2016," his son Job Ngari told the Nation, adding he was 78 years old.

Mr Ngari said his father suffered ailments including prostate cancer but added that a postmortem will reveal the cause of death.

"His condition deteriorated when he was at his Muraru village home in Mbeere South Sub-county so we rushed him to hospital. He died while doctors attended to him,” he said.

The family said it had informed Archbishop Jackson ole Sapit and other senior church leaders of Ireri’s death and started making funeral arrangements.

Eulogies

Embu leaders eulogised the bishop as a good leader who always preached unity and championed the rights of Mbeere’s people.

"He wanted people to co-exist. Ireri also fought for Mbeere to have a diocese. That was no mean feat," Manyatta MP John Muchiri said.

Mbeere South MP Geoffrey King'ang'i said he was shocked by news of the cleric’s death.

He said Bishop Ireri rose through the ranks to become one of the senior most priests in the Anglican Church and described him as a peacemaker.

“Embu has lost a great leader,” he said.

The leaders promised to help the family with the burial.


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