Dr Jephnei Orina stood inside a United States immigration office, watching a woman cry tears of joy. She had waited 18 years for this moment.
Years earlier, immigration officers had planned to deny her asylum application because she had tried to handle the paperwork herself and failed to submit crucial evidence. Then she hired Orina.
He reviewed every page of her file, gathered the missing documents and walked into the interview by her side.
When the woman was finally granted asylum, she hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek.
“That felt so good for me,” Orina says. “You are able to use your knowledge, your skills, and your experience to change someone’s life.”
He believes every green card he secures for a client is, in many ways, a gift to an entire village back home.
Orina is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and runs Orina and Orina Advocates along Ngong Road in Nairobi. Even while living in the United States, he still logs into virtual court sessions whenever his Kenyan office needs an extra hand.
But before any of that, he was a boy from Kisii County chasing a dream.
“I was born and raised in Kisii,” he says.
He attended St Charles Carolina for primary school before joining St Joseph School Rapogi in Migori County for secondary education. He later graduated from Kisii University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Education (Arts).
After graduation, he moved to Nairobi to pursue what he says had always been his ambition.
“I have always wanted to be a lawyer.”
He enrolled for a law degree at the University of Nairobi’s Parklands campus while simultaneously pursuing an MBA at Kisii University’s Nairobi campus. His schedule left little room to breathe.
“I came to town, did morning classes, went to work at a law firm in Upper Hill,” he says, before rushing to evening law classes.
He graduated with his law degree in 2021, joined the Kenya School of Law and was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya in 2023.
Soon afterwards, he left for the United States.
“I really wanted to get this done before I get to my 30s,” he says of his ambition to earn a doctorate. “It exposed me to world-class education and international law.”
He completed a Master of Laws at Northeastern University between 2023 and 2024 before enrolling for a PhD in Law at Suffolk University, graduating on May 17, 2026.
Financing that education demanded enormous sacrifice.
“I sold a piece of land back home, my car. I took out a student loan to help cover my master’s degree,” he says.
To pay for his PhD, he worked at a group home caring for elderly residents and people with mental health needs, earning about Sh2,200 an hour.
“For my PhD, I was working 96 hours, 100 hours a week just to be able to pay it,” he says.
His tuition alone totalled nearly Sh7.8 million.
“So, it was just about working those extra shifts until I’m able to pay it off.”
Finding work as an international student was not straightforward.
“International students are not allowed to work outside the university because, remember, you came to study. That is the main purpose,” he explains.
Campus jobs were scarce, forcing him to seek overnight work at the care facility.
“Once residents finish dinner, take their medication and go to sleep around eight in the evening, you have like a block of 10 hours where you can sit overnight and work on your PhD dissertation. You are not supposed to sleep because you are at work,” he says.
His first days in America proved even more difficult than he had imagined.
“The journey in America was a bit rougher than I thought.”
He landed at Logan International Airport in Boston knowing almost no one. A family friend who had promised to host him stopped answering calls the day before he left Kenya.
“So I get to Logan International Airport, I have nowhere to go. I’m in a new country,” he recalls. “That day I actually slept in the airport.”
The university could only direct him to apartment listings, which offered little help to someone without local contacts.
He began calling everyone he knew in the United States. Eventually, a former Airbnb guest connected him to a family from Thika living outside Boston.
They welcomed him into their home for several months.
Before that, he says, he spent days sleeping in classrooms.
“For almost a week, I was sleeping in the classroom because, you know, you don’t have anywhere to go. So in the morning, you go and take a shower at the gym.”
A friend later gave him a car, making it easier to move around the city as he settled into life in America.
After completing his master’s degree, Orina became eligible to sit the Massachusetts bar examination.
“Massachusetts allows lawyers trained in common law countries like Kenya to complete a one-year master’s programme before testing for the bar,” he says.
“The exam itself is a beast.”
“In Kenya, we just do nine courses and that is one per day. But in the US we do 14 courses within two days, totalling 12 hours.”
He says fewer than 40 per cent of first-time candidates pass.
Preparing for the examination came with immense pressure.
“I had grandparents who depended on me, I have parents who depend on me, I have children, I have a family,” he says.
“I remember when I saw the congratulation email that you passed the bar exams, I literally broke down and cried. It was a good feeling.”
He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in May 2025 and opened his own law firm the following month.
He deliberately chose immigration law because it is a federal practice area, allowing him to represent clients across the country while giving him the flexibility to continue his doctoral studies.
“If I was to go and do something like criminal or family law that needs me to go to court, that means you have to go to court at nine,” he says.
Immigration practice, which largely involves paperwork and filings, enabled him to build his business around his studies.
He says lawyers trained in Kenya already possess many of the legal foundations needed to practice in the United States.
“The US and Kenya were both colonies of Britain. So we inherited a lot of things from the British. That is the common law type of system,” he says.
“The only difference is there are two levels of government – the federal government and the state government.”
Away from work, Orina remains deeply connected to Kenya.
“I watch the news every day,” he says.
He says he remains active in politics and community development, returning home about four times a year.
“It is home and we have to build it,” he says.
“We want to build a country where our children can get education and jobs, so they do not have to come to the US.”
For Orina, success in America was never about leaving Kenya behind.
It was about gaining knowledge, experience and opportunity before bringing them back home.
It is a long way from the night he slept on the floor of Logan International Airport, but Orina says every sacrifice was worth it.