Doctor love: Inside Khalwale's wives' kingdom

When visitors trooped to Boni Khalwale’s expansive homestead in Malinya village, Ikolomani of Kakamega County, to mourn his late wife Gloria, they got a rare glimpse at the Senator’s private life away from the hard-tackling politics.

The spectacular compound overshadowed the sombre mood. Visitors who came to grieve, offer condolences and give speeches were mesmerised at the blend of tradition and modernity that gives an instant portrait of Khalwale’s polygamous life.

The beautifully laid out compound has several medium-sized bungalows positioned strategically around the homestead. The arrangement tells a much deeper story about marriage, seniority, lineage, responsibility, privacy and authority.

And the author of the story is none other than Boni Khalwale, a man popularly known as the “Bullfighter” because of his passion for bullfighting and ability to comfortably keep many wives.

Indeed, his Malinya homestead offers perhaps one of the clearest modern examples of how the traditional Luhya polygamous family was organised.

As mourners gathered for the burial of Gloria, Khalwale’s third wife, the houses that hold family secrets openly told the story of his polygamous family. Gloria, with whom he had eight children, was the second wife to die.

Before her was Adelaide Khalwale, whose imposing house stands near the main entrance. Adelaide, who died in 2019, was an employee of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology and the mother of Khalwale’s first three children.

Next to her house is the residence of his second wife, Josephine Khalwale, who is the mother of three children.

At the centre of the homestead stands Gloria’s house. Gloria died on August 15, 2026, reportedly of a heart attack.

The fourth house belongs to Khalwale’s wife Diana, who has three children.

On the other side of the main entrance is an oval-shaped bungalow built for the senator’s 17 children.

The arrangement of the homestead, according to Luhya elders, is by design. Traditionally, a Luhya polygamous homestead was carefully organised according to the order of marriage, age, lineage and responsibility.

Cultural identity

Each house carries the story of a wife and her children and reflects the family relationship.

And together, they tell the story of a Luhya family organisation that elders say is disappearing.

For Khalwale, the arrangement is more than an unusual feature of his private life but a declaration of cultural identity.

Although houses of different wives were built within one compound, their specific locations carried meaning, according to elders.

“The position of the houses matters significantly,” says David Khalukhana, an adviser to the Luhya Council of Elders, offering to shed light on polygamy following the intense social media conversations about Khalwale’s homestead.

“Polygamy has been and is still part of the Luhya community where a man was allowed to marry as many wives as he wished, but with one condition: he had to commit or promise that he would be in a position to take care of them,” he says.

He sees Khalwale’s home as a modern reflection of this traditional arrangement.

He explains, a visitor entering a Luhya polygamous compound could immediately understand the family structure simply by looking at the houses.

“As you enter in a Luhya homestead, at the entrance on your right-hand side is where the house of the first wife is built, followed by co-wives in that order to the last wife,” explains the elder.

The husband’s house, according to him, was placed at the centre.

“The man of the home used to have his house in the middle or at the centre of the compound and this was to allow him to oversee his wives and what was happening and easily control his homestead,” he says.

The sons also had a role to play. Their houses were positioned strategically to protect the homestead and the family.

“The position of the houses belonging to the sons can never be ignored. Their house were built at the right-hand side of the main entrance to protect their father and mothers,” Khalukhana says.

The arrangement was, therefore, both symbolic as well as protective.

A homestead was not simply a place where people lived. It was a carefully organised social institution where every person had a place and responsibility.

The house of a wife indicated her position in the family. The location of sons could point to their role as protectors. The husband’s central position reflected authority.

Even privacy was considered important. James Agesa, a Luhya elder, says a polygamous man traditionally needed a private space where he could handle matters away from his wives and children. He argues that this traditional arrangement helped create order within large families.

But with modernity, Christianity and changing social values, these traditional norms are getting eroded.

Agesa believes the transformation has contributed to the decline of a tradition that was once openly embraced.

“Polygamy was normal in the Luhya community where it was widely embraced. But with the coming of Christianity, our people were told that polygamy is bad and is for the poor. But that was not the case,” he says.

On the contrary, for Agesa, polygamy was expected of a man who was prepared to shoulder significant responsibility.

“Polygamy is not for poor people. It is for those with a big heart and those who embrace culture,” he says.

He points to the historical and religious references surrounding polygamy while challenging the notion that it was a practice associated with poverty.

Agesa also believes that managing a large family required leadership skills, discipline and wealth.

“A man with a large family can control a situation and he can be a good leader compared to one with one family or none,” he says.

Senator Khalwale appears to subscribe to this school of thought.

For him, polygamy is not simply about having several wives. It is a cultural practice that he believes deserves respect.

In an interview with a local media house, the mercurial politician said his father was also a polygamist.

“I am not having many wives because my father was a polygamist but it is because it is a culture that needs to be respected and I have practised it to the hilt,” Khalwale said.

His openness about his family has made him one of the few prominent Kenyan politicians to speak publicly about polygamy.

During a press conference in 2024, he revealed that he had four wives and 17 children. The Senator has also frequently celebrated his children’s academic achievements, regularly sharing their milestones on social media.

For a man whose political career places him firmly in the public eye, the family has remained a point of interest among Kenyans.

Questions about how many children he has and how he manages such a large household have surfaced repeatedly.

But Khalwale insists that his home is peaceful.

Good wives

During Gloria’s burial at Malinya Grounds, he told mourners that the quiet atmosphere at the funeral reflected the atmosphere at his home.

“The way this ground is silent here is how my compound is. When you come to my home it is very quiet despite me having a big family. I have good wives and I thank them for that,” he said.

He mourned a woman he described as calm, quiet and deeply devoted to her family.

Khalwale’s most emotional memories of Gloria was not about politics or public life, but about the ordinary things that made their marriage interesting.

He remembered her cooking, especially soup made from goat heads.

“My wife was nice. I am going to miss her soup. It is not easy. May my wife go to heaven. My wife was very calm; she was quiet and a very good Maasai girl. You could not notice her but you could notice her food,” he said.

He recalled how, once every two weeks, Gloria would drive to Kakamega town, buy goat heads and return home to prepare soup for his breakfast.

“I am going to miss that soup but fortunately, Flavia, my daughter, knows how to cook like her mother,” he said.

The Senator also proudly spoke about his daughter’s academic achievements.

“Edwin, this girl was top student at Malinya and Alliance Girls,” he told Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, who was among those attending the burial.

Khalwale, who is a medical doctor, also recounted the birth of Gloria’s twins, Flavia and Olivia.

He said that after an ultrasound revealed that Gloria was carrying twins, he decided not to take her to a labour ward and instead helped her deliver at their home in Nairobi.

“You see my wife who is sleeping here, because I am a doctor, after realising she had twins, I didn’t take her to a labour ward. I just helped her give birth at our seat while in Nairobi,” he said.

The senator also used Gloria’s cooking prowess to make a political joke about Sifuna.

“Gloria, my wife, has cooked for two presidents, former President Uhuru Kenyatta at Malinya Square and he won elections. I also brought President William Ruto and today she is going to cook for the third president, Edwin Sifuna,” Khalwale said.

He said he had slaughtered 10 bulls in honour of his late wife and urged mourners not to leave the ceremony hungry.

The humour provided a brief relief from the grief surrounding the funeral while highlighting the personality of Gloria, who, despite being married to a politician, kept away from the limelight.

Her death has left a significant gap in Khalwale’s large household. Gloria was the mother of eight of his 17 children, making her an important pillar of the family.

The senator’s family has often been compared with that of another prominent Western Kenya politician, the late former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, who also lived openly as a polygamist.

Both men became examples of prominent Western Kenyan politicians who maintained large polygamous families in an era when such arrangements are frowned upon as outdated.

In Kenya, polygamy is legally recognised in customary and Islamic marriages, but the practice remains socially controversial.

Critics often associate it with family conflict, competition among households and the possibility of neglecting children.

But Khalwale’s public presentation of his family offers a positive contradiction, one centred on the pillars of authority, responsibility, harmony and education.

Strong family

The family’s public image has therefore been less about the number of wives and more about what the Senator says he has achieved as a father.

During Gloria’s burial, political leaders acknowledged this, including Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang, who praised Khalwale for raising what he described as a strong and successful family.

He joked after Khalwale introduced two of his daughters to mourners, saying: “I have seen Khalwale’s two beautiful daughters and if men of this area will not do something, I will have to request that one and another be given to Sifuna. But what we have learnt here is that Khalwale has raised a strong and successful family.”

Sifuna quickly responded, making it clear that he did not want to be drawn into the joke.

A day before Gloria’s burial, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula visited the Senator to condole with him. He described Khalwale as a good father who had raised a strong family.

He also offered a humorous reflection on Khalwale’s polygamous household, suggesting that the Senator had an advantage over men with only one wife when dealing with bereavement.

“We are praying that God grants Khalwale strength, but for many of us who have one wife right now, we will be wondering what to do next. But for Khalwale, he has many wives, and he will be able to move on easily and forget about the tragedy since he has some other wives to console him,” he said.

The comment drew laughter, but the reality behind it was more complicated.

The death of Gloria was not merely the loss of a wife. It was the loss of one of the central figures in a family of 17 children and four households.

At Malinya, however, the family structure appeared to remain firmly rooted in the tradition Khalwale has defended for years.