The untold story of Lilian Omollo: Quiet PS charged with Sh9 billion NYS scandal

 Lilian Mbogo [PHOTO: Wilberforce Okwiri]

Youth Affairs PS Lilian Mbogo-Omollo who has been charged over the Sh9 billion NYS corruption scandal married two different men.

Lilian had married Omollo, whose name she retained, but later dumped him and got hitched to Dick Oruko Oneko, son of nationalist Ramogi Achieng’ Oneko.

In a convoy of vehicles, Lilian took and introduced Oneko to her folks in the sleepy Rukira village in Embu County that Saturday, June 3, 2017.  

But the man she took for bride price negotiations was Oneko. A relative who attended the ceremony told The Nairobian that Lilian’s mother could not differentiate between Omollo, whom she lived with as husband and wife and who never got to pay the bride price, and Oneko whom she married as her second husband and who met her mother in Rukira village.

“The ceremony was limited to family members, close friends and guests from Nairobi,” a source who attended the event recalled, adding that Lilian’s mother, Marigu Mbogo thought it was Omollo, who accompanied by his people, brought bride price and which they respectfully received.

When The Nairobian visited the home in Rukira village, Marigu spoke from the balcony of the first floor of the mansion built on an expansive compound in the fertile land of Rukira village.

“It was my son-in-law Omollo who visited in a ceremony that was very successful,” she said adding that Omollo took her cows and other items that she declined to disclose.

She added that the two have been married for many years and blessed with three children, the eldest 21 years.

She told The Nairobian that if it was not Omollo who paid the bride price, then only her daughter could clarify matters.

“I can’t answer that as I may say things that she might be uncomfortable about. I believe she can make informed choices about her life and mine would be just to receive whoever she brings us,” said the mother, adding that as a church pastor she cannot lie about the matter.

Contacted by The Nairobian, Omollo curtly declined to be drawn into the issue and disconnected his cell phone.

Relatives from Oneko’s family told The Nairobian that, Lilian has no child with Oneko, a divorcee with children and that they are building a rural home which they frequent. 

Oneko did not respond to our phone calls or text messages. 

Lilian’s family hails from Makengi area of Runyenjes constituency, Embu County where she was born before buying two parcels of land about a kilometre apart in Rukira area and relocated there some years back.

 Neighbours say her mother’s one storied mansion was built about 10 years ago. Lilian completed building an imposing mansion in the second parcel ringed all round by trees and flowers that make it only partially visible from the road.

Only the high roof can be seen from the Nembure-Rukira road. Her mother’s home is also similarly eclipsed by a high fence and a forest of trees. At the wall near the gate of her mother’s home is a plaque written “The Vine Yard” “John 15:1-17.

The Nairobian found the gates to the two homes locked with seemingly no person in sight and despite Lilian being in the spotlight over the theft of Sh9 billion from the NYS, neighbours appear unconcerned.

“We just see vehicles enter the compound and we learn that she is around. We don’t see her moving about in the neighbourhood. She leaves as abruptly as she comes,” said a villager only identified as Nyaga.

They, however, describe the Mbogos as peaceful neighbours who have never been involved in an altercation with the locals and say her mother is a hospitable and God-fearing woman who welcomes visitors and responds to their requests.

A graduate of the 2001 Joint Kenyatta University/University of Illinois Entrepreneurship Master’s degree, and a Bachelor of Education from Kenyatta University, Lilian previously worked as CEO for NEPAD Kenya Secretariat and the UNDP- Kenya where she managed the Public Sector Reform Programme.