RIP: 20/11/2023 - Lubumbashi

Frater Tolbert Odhaimbo Otieno was born on 31 August 1994 in Nyando district in Kisumu County, Kenya. A member of a Catholic family, he was baptised on 31 August 2002 at Ahero parish, in the Archdiocese of Kisumu. On 11 October 2002, he received the sacrament of confirmation at the same parish. Tolbert studied at Okanja Primary School from January 1998 to November 2007. He did his secondary school studies at Lela Secondary School from February 2008 to November 2011. After a process of discernment, he expressed his desire to the confreres of the Otto Hopfenmüller Mission in Kenya to join the Society of the Divine Saviour. He was therefore sent to the formation house St. Joseph Namiungo in Tanzania in August 2020, where he did his postulancy. A year later, on 7 December 2021, he started the novitiate in Nakapanya. This phase of religious initial formation was completed with the first profession of temporary vows in the church of St. Joseph Namiungo Formation House, Tanzania on 8 December 2022. As part of international formation, Frater Tolbert was sent to Tshabula in the Democratic Republic of Congo to study Philosophy, which he embarked on enthusiastically. During the last weeks of his life, however, he complained of eye problems and headaches. He was transferred to Lubumbashi for further treatment and admitted to the hospital in the Intensive Care Unit. Unfortunately, help was to no avail and on Sunday 20 November 2023, God called him to His eternal rest. It was later discovered that Frater Tolbert had cerebral malaria. He was 29 years old and had been a Salvatorian for 11 months. His remains were transferred to the Salvatorian Mission in Kenya.