Veteran gynaecologist and Nairobi Hospital director Dr Job Obwaka has died at the age of 83.
He passed away this evening at 7:00 pm at the very facility where he served patients for decades, his wife, Everose Obwaka, confirmed.
Hospital sources said he was brought in unconscious and was pronounced dead on arrival.
His death comes just six weeks after his dramatic arrest outside his surgery. This case shook Kenya’s medical fraternity and raised questions about the governance of one of the country’s most prestigious private hospitals.
Dr Obwaka had been receiving medical care since mid-March after collapsing at the Milimani Law Courts while awaiting arraignment over disputed charges of falsifying hospital records. He was rushed to Nairobi Hospital’s intensive care unit by ambulance. Despite treatment, his condition deteriorated over several weeks.
A Nairobi Hospital board member confirmed his death, saying: “He fought to serve his patients until his last breath.”
On March 14, 2026, detectives arrested the octogenarian doctor at the NSSF Building parking bay on Bishops Road. He was detained for three nights at Muthaiga Police Station and charged alongside three others with allegedly falsifying a register of members of the Kenya Hospital Association, which runs Nairobi Hospital.
The arrest drew sharp reactions from the medical fraternity. The Kenya Medical Association warned of the “criminalisation of doctors,” while the Law Society of Kenya termed the move heavy-handed.
Dr Obwaka, an alumnus of the University of Nairobi (MBChB 1975, MMed 1983), was a respected mentor and a vocal critic of what he described as repeated defiance of court rulings by hospital management.
He leaves behind a five-decade legacy of delivering thousands of babies and training generations of doctors.
His death inside the institution he sought to reform marks a tragic turn in a governance dispute that remains unresolved.
