Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has claimed that his late father, former cabinet minister Dr. Zachary Onyonka, hosted and hid a fugitive Yoweri Museveni at their rural home in 1978, years before Museveni became President of Uganda. The assertion, made during an interview with a local television station on Monday, 10 November 2025, casts a new light on the historical ties between figures in the two nations, arriving amidst a period of renewed diplomatic friction.

“In 1978, he walked into my home in Kisii. By that time, my father was a minister; he needed to be kept and hidden away,” Senator Onyonka stated, adding that Museveni brought along his own intelligence officers who were given cover as teachers in a school owned by his father. The Senator posed a rhetorical question about the potential consequences had his father, a senior official in the Kenyan government at the time, handed Museveni over to his opponents.

Dr. Zachary Onyonka was a formidable figure in Kenyan politics, first elected to Parliament in 1969 and serving as a cabinet minister in various dockets until his death in 1996. His long tenure spanned the administrations of both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi.

A Fugitive's Path and a Minister's Risk

Yoweri Museveni was involved in struggles against two Ugandan regimes. After Idi Amin's coup in 1971, Museveni participated in an abortive invasion in 1972 and later formed the Front for National Salvation (FRONASA) to fight Amin's government. Following Amin's overthrow in 1979, Museveni served briefly in a new government before returning to the bush. In 1981, he formed the National Resistance Army (NRA) to wage a guerrilla war against the government of Milton Obote, who had returned to power in a disputed 1980 election. Senator Onyonka's reference to hiding Museveni from “Obote’s people” in 1978 appears to conflate timelines, as Amin was still in power. However, Museveni was indeed a fugitive actively organizing against a sitting Ugandan head of state.

For a Kenyan cabinet minister to harbor a foreign national actively plotting to overthrow a neighboring government would have been a significant political and personal risk. Relations between Kenya under President Moi and Uganda, particularly after Museveni took power in 1986, were frequently tense and fraught with suspicion. The Moi government was wary of Museveni's perceived socialist leanings and feared the then-rebel leader could export his “firebrand politics” across the border. This underlying mistrust later led to diplomatic standoffs, including border closures and accusations of each country supporting dissidents against the other in 1987. Independent verification of Dr. Onyonka's specific involvement in sheltering Museveni requires further investigation, as the claim currently rests on his son's account. FURTHER INVESTIGATION REQUIRED.

Modern Tensions and Historical Echoes

Senator Onyonka's revelation is particularly resonant given recent events. His comments followed President Museveni's public admission on Sunday, 9 November 2025, that his government had arrested and detained two Kenyan activists, Nelson Oyoo and Bob Njagi, who had been missing for 38 days. Museveni accused the Kenyans of being “experts in riots” and working with the opposition National Unity Platform, led by Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine. The activists were subsequently released and repatriated to Kenya.

The incident sparked outrage in Kenya, with rights organizations launching petitions and condemning what they termed “cross-border repression.” The Ugandan government had initially denied holding the men, an assertion later contradicted by President Museveni himself.

The juxtaposition of these events—a historical claim of sanctuary for a Ugandan fugitive in Kenya versus the confirmed detention of Kenyan citizens in Uganda—underscores the complex and often contradictory nature of the relationship between the two East African neighbors. While they are key economic partners within the East African Community, with Uganda heavily relying on Kenya's Mombasa port, their political relationship has oscillated between cooperation and confrontation for decades. High-level state visits and agreements on infrastructure and trade often occur against a backdrop of simmering political and security disagreements.

Senator Onyonka's story, whether a personal family anecdote or a piece of unrecorded regional history, serves as a powerful commentary on the personal bonds and political risks that have long shaped East African diplomacy. It implicitly contrasts a past era's perceived Pan-African solidarity with the present-day realities of national security interests and interstate suspicions.