Ugenya’s Archbishop Stephen Ondiek: Betrayed by Kindness, Tested by Tragedy”

• “How a Ugandan Stranger Shattered the Ondiek Family”

In 1979 Archbishop Stephen Ondiek of the Legio Maria Church, who also served as an assistant minister and mp for Ugenya, opened the doors of his home to a stranger from Uganda, who later killed his son.

By then, Ondiek was running a series of businesses and a school in Kitale when a Ugandan known as Asami Bwire Obong alias Ernest Onyango approached him for assistance. He was wallowing in destitution with nowhere to go to.

Ondiek opened the doors of his home to Obong wholeheartedly and treated him as one of his family members. He also enrolled him in one of his private schools.

In 1982, after three years of being offered sanctuary by Archbishop Ondiek, Obong claimed that he had been offered a scholarship by a European mission to pursue accountancy. He therefore requested Ondiek for permission to leave.

Ondiek never heard of Obong again until January 1, 1989, when he placed a telephone call to his home at Trio Estate Nairobi, demanding to talk to his daughter Milcah Ondiek.

Obong went on to invite Milcah for a movie at the Kenya cinema. Since Obong was considered a family member, Milcah agreed to go. His little brother Eric Ondiek also tagged along. Instead of entering the cinema, Obong hired a taxi for Nairobi-Nakuru hotel, where he treated them with food and soft drinks.

Meanwhile, Obong asked Milcah to continue enjoying the meal as he stepped out with Eric to buy him a watch. Again, Milcah had no reason to doubt Obong. After all, he had lived in their home for three years.

Little did she know that she was dealing with a cold-blooded murderer. In the event, that was the last time she saw her little brother. Obong returned to the hotel alone and told Milcah that Eric had gone to the cinema with her brother and persuaded her to accompany him to the place.

On arrival at the Kenya cinema, Obong told Milcah to remain outside as he went to look for Eric upstairs. That’s how Obong disappeared never to return. After waiting for hours, it finally dawned on her that something was amiss. She searched the cinema and frantically called home and the hotel, but she couldn’t trace Obong and her little brother Eric.

With darkness creeping in, she decided to return home. Moments after her arrival, Obong called their home phone claiming that he and Eric had fallen victim of armed kidnappers who were demanding a ransom of Sh 1.5 million.

Archbishop Ondiek reported the matter to the police who quickly swung into action. Realising that the matter had been reported, Obong called Ondiek again, claiming that he believed Eric had been killed. Nevertheless,on January 6 1989, the police raided a lodging where they found Eric’s lifeless body. He had died of strangulation.

Obong arrived in Nakuru that evening and booked himself in the B’ahai Centre. He was arrested on January 8, while in possession of newspaper cuttings depicting Eric’s murder. During interrogation he was found with a set of keys one of which opened room 8 at Nairobi-Nakuru hotel and the other opened room 4 at the Trinity Bible College where he spent the night the day Eric’s lifeless body was found.

During the trial, Alice Wanjiru, who worked as a receptionist at the Nairobi-Nakuru hotel, informed Justice Osiemo how Obong using the pseudonym Abdullah had booked three rooms at the hotel. She was able to identify Obong during an identification parade at Parklands Police station. On March 20, 1990, Justice Osiemo sentenced Asami Bwire Obong alias Ernest Onyango to death for kidnapping and murdering Eric Omondi Ondiek.

However, personal tragedies continued to stalk Archbishop Ondiek until his death in 2011. In 2002, he lost his three sons and a daughter in a grisly road accident along the Gilgil-Naivasha road. The jubilant children were returning to Nairobi after helping their father to win Narc nominations for the Ugenya parliamentary seat. Six months earlier, Ondiek had lost one of his wives (sister to Siaya Governor James Orengo).

Speaking about the tragedy, Ondiek said: ” I have no power over God .. The almighty is the creator and has decided to take the children he had given me back.. There’s nothing l can do.”

Ondiek represented Ugenya constituency from 1983 to 1992 , then from 2002 to 2007. It was always a bitter contest between him and his brother-in-law James Orengo.