Boni Khalwale: Bull Fighter, Two-time Kakamega Senator

Boni Khalwale is a Kenyan politician and former medical practitioner who is serving as the Senator for Kakamega County.

Khalwale was born on August 5, 1960 in Malinya, Kakamega county.

Early Life

He attended Musingu High School before continuing his education at Kakamega School for his A levels.

He earned his medical degree from the University of Nairobi in 1987.

Khalwale maintains a polygamous lifestyle, like many families in Western Kenya, with two wives and multiple children.

He married his first wife Adelaide Shikanga while still a second year student at the University of Nairobi. Adelide was still in form two when they got married. Later, he sent her back to school.

She passed on in 2019 due to cancer.

Professional Career

After university, he was employed as a medical officer by the government in 1988. 

Two years later, he went into private practice in Mombasa before going to Kakamega where he worked until 2002.

Politics

In 2002, he entered politics for the first time, gaining the Ikolomani Constituency Parliamentary Seat on a NARC ticket. On a New Ford Kenya party ticket in 2007, he was re-elected to the same seat.

In February 2011, his election as a Member of Parliament in Kenya’s 2007 parliamentary election was declared null and void.

On May 23, 2011, Dr Khalwale reclaimed his Ikolomani seat, defeating a challenger from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

Dr Khalwale of then New Ford Kenya received 13,208 votes in Ikolomani, followed by Bernard Shinali of ODM with 10,702. Collins Matemba of Ford People came in third place with 293 votes.

Also known as the bullfighter, Khalwale’s triumph over Shinali, who he defeated by a razor-thin margin of 200 votes in the 2007 elections, must have been due to the high-profile campaigns undertaken by the former ODM leadership, led by the former Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.

The defeat was seen as a blow not only to Mr Mudavadi, but also to ODM, which was looking to reassert its authority in the region where it had the most MPs, and as a boost to CS Eugene Wamalwa’s presidential ambitions, who ran alongside former Housing Minister Soita Shitanda for the New Ford-K candidate.

In 2013, he won the Kakamega Senatorial seat on a UDF Party ticket with 248,888 votes, defeating former presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo, who received 145,736 votes.

He, however, lost the seat in 2017.

In 2022, he sought to become Kakamega Governor but dropped his bid in favour of then area senator Cleophas Malala.

Instead, Khalwale vied for the senatorial seat on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) ticket. He is the current majority whip in the senate.