The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and
international interest.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s eldest son, Jomo Kenyatta, is off the bachelor’s market.
The bewitching maiden he has chosen to bring warmth and life in his thingira (traditional Kikuyu man’s hut) is Fiona Achola Ngobi, a tall, brainy granddaughter of the late Luo political giant, Dr William Odongo Omamo.
Dr Omamo, the father of Defense Cabinet Secretary, Raychelle Omamo, and who was nicknamed Kaliech (elephant) and kuri kuri (come to me), died at 82 in 2010.
Fiona Achola, who has Luo, Kikuyu and Ugandan blood, became a Kenyatta, with the coolest mother-in-law to boot, during ‘Ngurario’ a traditional Kikuyu wedding ceremony at her parent’s Miotioni home in Nairobi’s Karen estate on October 22. Miotoni residents were alerted days before that the president would be calling and instructed to behave appropriately and limit their movements.
Achola, the holder of two Masters degrees, has two sisters and is an accountant at a local bank.
Described as ‘the perfect daughter in-law’ partly due to her well-spoken nature, the niece of Defense CS Raychaelle Omamo hails from a respectable family and has no characteristics of a socialite.
Uhuru Kenyatta was ‘over the moon’ about his daughter in-law whose late father is a Kikuyu with Ugandan roots from Murang’a. A source who attended the ceremony and observed the goings-on from close quarters told The Nairobian that the President “kept repeating how they love her like a thousand times. The girl is highly educated and the bride and groom are certainly in love.”
Details of what happened during the ceremony, which will be followed by a church wedding before the 2017 general election, were scanty as sources were instructed to keep it under wraps, but Dr Omamo’s widow was present at the ceremony.
Our source, however, divulged that the ceremony was heavily themed on Kikuyu traditions with the bride and groom wearing traditional regalia, sharing food from the kaihuri (calabash) and curu wa mugagatio (sour porridge) from the kinya (gourds).
Jomo’s relationship with Fiona Achola, however, has not been as discreet as the Ngurario. Jomo flaunted her during the Jamhuri Day celebrations at the Nyayo National Stadium in 2015. The couple held hands, spent most of the time together. They were also seen together when US President Barack Obama visited Kenya in July 2015 as well as during the visit by Pope Francis that November. The next time Fiona was in seen public, she was flaunting what seemed like an engagement ring in June 2016.
