A portrait of the late Captain Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi during the requiem mass held at St Francis ACK Church in Karen on May 14, 2025.
Before his aircraft was shot down in Sudan on May 2, 2025, Captain Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi had sent one final message to his family. At exactly 5 am, he responded to a text from his sister, Love Kadogo. His last words to her were brief and reassuring: "No worries, Kadogo."
The rest of their conversation remains private, but those who knew him understand how deeply they were bonded. Georgie, as his family fondly called him, often called or texted Kadogo regardless of the time difference. Even at 2 or 3 am, he would check in, and their conversations would drift from aeroplane engines to upcoming flight training, music, family, and everything in between.
Captain Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi.
That same day, tragedy struck. Captain Nyamodi and several others were killed when the cargo plane he was piloting was hit by artillery as it prepared to land at Nyala Airport in Darfur —an area controlled by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group embroiled in Sudan’s civil conflict.
Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, has become a strategic flashpoint. Sources say the aircraft was shot down by the Sudanese military, which suspected it was ferrying weapons to the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti.
A seasoned fixed-wing pilot who once dreamed of flying helicopters, Nyamodi’s life ended abruptly in a war zone, far from home.
Georgie, the boy who once tinkered endlessly with electronics and loved his pets, had grown into a man of strong will and quiet intensity. He always had something to say, Kadogo recalled —reminding her of his childhood nickname, “Kimenyi”.
His daughter, Natalie, found comfort in faith.
“Dearest Dad, thank you for the gift of life. Words cannot fully express the depth of this loss,” she said. “We now release Dad into the embrace of a just and merciful God…Till we meet again.”
His brother, Paul Nyamodi, remembered him as a quiet pillar of strength.
“Though we did not speak every day, we shared a deep love for each other. You were always there for me,” he said. From the moment he received the call that changed everything, Paul admitted he hadn’t stopped crying.
“But I know that this is love. Your passing has taught me that death is the ultimate act of love. As those we love do not die, they merely go ahead of us to prepare the way. You once told me that life was but an interruption in an instance of eternity. I release you back to the eternity that we all came from, and to which one day we shall all return.”
He paused, reflecting.
Paul Nyamodi reads his tribute at the requiem mass for his brother Captain Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi at St Francis ACK Church in Karen on May 14, 2025.
“It dawned on me that the curtains had come down on your final act. And what an act your life was. I was privileged to have had a front row seat in that act.”
Captain Nyamodi died doing what he loved. But he was no stranger to risk. In fact, he had once been detained in South Sudan for violating aviation rules. His former classmates remembered him as daring, fearless, and principled. He was someone who did not back down when he believed he was right.
“He had this stubborn streak, and that came from a place of principle. If George believed he was right, he wasn’t backing down. And when he landed in trouble, he carried himself with a calm that was disarming. He wasn’t reckless. He was simply true to himself,” Nairobi School class of 1990 eulogised him.
In December 2024, an aircraft operated by Hala Airlines —one of the companies he worked with— was briefly detained in South Sudan. The crew, including Captain Nyamodi, was accused of painting over the plane’s registration markings to evade detection by the country’s civil aviation authority.
Born on October 16, 1972, Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi was the second-born child of the late Dr Zacharia and Veronica Nyamodi. He was orphaned at 15.
Politician Raphael Tuju, speaking at a memorial service in Nairobi, remembered his old friend.
“Take heart, the Nyamodi family,” he said. “This is God’s will.”
Captain Nyamodi’s body had been moved to Chad, awaiting repatriation to Kenya. He will be laid to rest in Siaya on Saturday.
