Adelle Onyango- Biography, Age, Husband, Family, Rape, Career, Awards.

Adelle Onyango is a Kenyan radio presenter, social activist and media personality and she was selected as one of 2017’s BBC 100 Women and one of OkayAfrica’s Top Women of 2018.

Adelle attended high school in Botswana. Onyango was raped by a stranger in Westlands, Nairobi in 2008. Since then she has supported causes to support the victims of rape such as founding the campaign No Means No. She studied journalism and psychology at United States International University Africa, where Onyango specialised in public relations. Adelle Onyango has always been interested in poetry, though she felt there was not enough space for her and her fellow artists. In her final year at the campus she started an open mic night, where poets and musicians shared their work. While still at campus she was headhunted by Then One FM, a Kenyan radio station, and recruited her to host the drive time radio programme. In 2012, Adelle lost her mother to breast cancer, this motivated her to becoming involved with campaigns to promote awareness and treatments.

Age

Adelle was born in February 5th, 1989.

Adelle Onyango

Husband

Adelle got married to Falgun Bhojak and they wedded back 2017 in a secret wedding at Redhill heights, Limuru, Kiambu County. They have been dating for three years though got engaged secretly, only a month later which caught everyone by surprise including her friends.

Adelle Onyango and her Husband
Adelle Onyango and her Husband

Even with Onyango being in the limelight, she successfully kept her relationship under carpet for all that time only uploading very cryptic captioned pictures with very little evidence of him. She revealed that she did this to ensure that his life is not brought into the spotlight after her engagement. The small and intimate garden wedding was attended by close family members and colleagues from Radio Africa like Shaffie Weru and Kate Sidede. Adelle wore a stunning white gown with a lace bodice despite the cold.

Family

Adelle’s mother Anyango succumbed to cancer in 2012 and she has two beautiful sisters.

Rape

She was raped when she was going to a party with her friends in a club in westlands in December 2008. It was after she left a house party to hit a club in Westlands, with her girlfriends that the incidence happened. Onyango had just realized that she had left her phone in her friend’s car and decided to go for it. Adelle left her friends at Club Changes and walked towards another club, The Gypsies down Electric Avenue where her friend had parked his car.

On her walk down the street, a stranger approached her from some shop stalls nearby, who was neat looking and polite and asked her if he could walk her to wherever she was going but she politely declined the offer and went on her way. No sooner had he left than she realized and saw the man following her but she did not think much of it until they got to the back route of the nearby police station, where Adelle saw him inch closer. He pushed her down onto the ground and forced himself on her and what happened next was a blur and when the man was done, he ran away. She was taken to hospital by her friends at that night after knowing that she had been raped.

Career

She worked as a radio presenter at Kiss FM, where she presented the Saturday breakfast show for seven good years. She started a Saturday evening programme where she played African music while still at Kiss FM. She became a social media influencer, with her followers calling themselves ‘#TeamAdelle’ during her time at Kiss FM and in 2019 she left Kiss FM.

Onyango has trained women in Africa to be more confident online and use the internet as a tool for empowerment. Adelle has spoken out against online trolls that be better or grow up. Always deal with your internal issues instead of projecting them on us. Onyango established a mentorship programme, the Sisterhood, in 2016, which offers support for women in Africa. Through No Means No and Sisterhood Adelle Onyango helps women access therapies and safe houses and offering confidence classes for victims of rape. Adelle has worked to champion Kenyan women and youths. In 2018, she launched a new initiative, Unapologetically African. She also developed a work experience programme for high school students. In 2019, she started the podcast Legally Clueless.

Awards

In 2017, Adelle was selected as one of BBC’s top 100 Women and in 2018, was selected as one of OkayAfrica’s top 100 women. In 2019, she was among the two Kenyans included in the Africa Youth Awards’ 100 Most Influential Young Africans.