Senator Richard Onyonka: A man with two fathers
National
By
Stanley Ongwae
| May 12, 2026
Kisii Senator Richard Momoima Onyonka, traces his childhood in two villages and from two fathers: The foster and the biological one.
It was until after the death of his mother Teresa Nyaboke Omoke that many Kenyans started asking why the senator was not using the surname of Omoke but Onyonka.
Raising questions why he was the odd one in the family of Mama Teresa who bore the surname of Onyonka…a former powerful minister, Dr Zachary Onyonka who died in 1996 after serving as MP for many years, and as minister in the late Jomo Kenyatta and the late Daniel Moi’s governments.
Mama Teresa died two weeks ago at the age of 82 and she will be buried at her late husband Joseph Omoke’s home in Nyamataro home in the outskirts of Kisii Town.
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Mama Teresa was initially married to the late Cabinet minister Onyonka who then was a young man in his twenties.
That was in the early 60s when Onyonka got an opportunity to go and study in the US where he stayed away for more than eight years.
While away, word has it that the young wife Teresa who then was left behind with the toddler Richard was convinced that her husband who was away for studies had long married a white woman and was likely not to return to the country.
That was when she decided to get married to another man, not very far away from Onyonka’s home in Nyamataro.
After the unexpected return home of the now educated Dr Onyonka, he was shocked to learn that the woman he had left behind had long moved on and had even sired children with her new husband, Joseph Omoke.
Onyonka was forced to remarry.
The story of Richard and the parents’ marriage cut short is that of a young man pre-destined for a great future that would later unfold regardless of the prevailing social winds.
It wasn’t until when the young Richard, now under the care of the foster father, had enrolled in Kisii School for his O-level studies that a re-union with his father, who was now the Minister for Education, Science and Technology in the Moi’s government, happened.
The reunion saw the social status of the adolescent Richard change drastically as the father fully took him up.
From then on, the older Onyonka changed the young man’s names from Omoke’s to Onyonka’s, adding him a middle name of Momoima which in Ekegusii means, the begotten child.
And indeed, Momoima remained the only son born to the late Onyonka and the heir apparent of the vast estate in Mosocho, Kisii County.
The other family of the late Onyonka which he raised after remarrying remains unknown to many.
However, even with the changed family status, Momoima had to keep a father-son relation with his foster dad Mr Omoke as well as his other siblings.
Together with the late Omoke, Mama Teresa sired seven other children.
In the family’s obituary which was published in the local dailies, the senator was recognised as Senator Richard Onyonka while the other siblings bear the surname of Omoke.
But it’s not the parentage story that has elicited reactions from the Onyonka’s but his private life which has also sparked debate, especially after he made public his relationship with former IEBC Commissioner Dr Roseline Akombe whom he officially introduced as his wife.
“What many people have not known for a long time is that Dr Roseline Akombe is my wife. If you look around our house you can see pictures of her with my mother. She would give her a treat to America and take her round,” Onyonka said during one of the gatherings of local leaders in his home.
The senator known for his eloquence in Swahili and English clarified that he was a father to 12 children and four wives.
During the gathering, he paraded his wives including Akombe and four of the children.
Much is awaited as Senator Onyonka lays his mother to rest on Friday.