Achieng Oneko is one of Kenya’s freedom fighters in the Mau Mau movement. It may be hard for the current generation to know much about this Kenyan patriarch if it were not for historical accounts recorded and stored in the Kenyan historical archives.
Oneko was born in 1920 in Tieng'a village, Uyoma sub-location of Bondo District and he attended the Maseno School.
Achieng’ Oneko, who died in 2007, was the last man standing of the 6 freedom fighters- popularly known as “The Kapenguria Six”, who were arrested and incarcerated by the British colonialists.
When Kenya got independence in 1963, the first parliamentary elections were held and Oneko was elected Member of Parliament Nakuru town constituency. That goes without saying that Achieng’ Oneko was the first Nakuru Town Constituency MP.
He was a great ally of the first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta’s after having been jailed in Kapenguria together. Therefore, President Kenyatta as a reward appointed him as the first Information, Broadcasting and Tourism Minister.
Nonetheless, Oneko fell out with President Kenyatta in 1969 when the president visited Kisumu town where he was received with what he perceived to be disrespect. Following the outcome of the visit, Oneko was arrested and put behind bars where he served a 6-year jail term only to be released in 1975.
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