Before joining the Prisons Service his father had served in the King’s African Rifles and had been deployed to Misr (Egypt) towards the end of World War II.

Ocwinyo taught at various educational institutions before becoming an editor for Fountain Publishers, Kampala.

Fate of the Banished won the 1997 Uganda Publishers and Booksellers Association (UPABA) award for best adult fiction.

In 2004, Footprints of the Outsider won the Kinyara Award for best adult fiction (sponsored by the British Council).

Fate of the Banished, was selected as one of the study texts for the A-level Literature syllabus.