When a Besigye lookalike from Kenya crossed borders in search of answers

Years before the Kafeero family dispute reached the DNA laboratory, Uganda and East Africa watched another unusual story unfold when a young Kenyan photojournalist, Jeff Ochieng, emerged with a striking resemblance to former Forum for Democratic Change leader Dr Kizza Besigye.

The public debate around Paul Kafeero’s DNA results has revived old questions about paternity, resemblance and how quickly public speculation can grow around famous men.

Years before the Kafeero family dispute reached the DNA laboratory, Uganda and East Africa watched another unusual story unfold when a young Kenyan photojournalist, Jeff Ochieng, emerged with a striking resemblance to former Forum for Democratic Change leader Dr Kizza Besigye.

His face alone was enough to start talk. Many people who saw him believed he could be Besigye’s son.

Ochieng was 22 when his story first drew attention in 2014. He worked as a photojournalist with Standard Media Group in Kenya.

For years, he had been teased by schoolmates, workmates and strangers because he looked like Besigye. The matter became more intense after he travelled to Uganda on assignment.

During that trip, people on a Kampala-bound bus asked whether he knew Besigye or whether he had a close connection to him. At a market in Uganda, some people reportedly ran towards him while chanting Besigye’s name.

Ochieng later said the experience unsettled him. He had never met his father, and his mother, Elisha Adhiambo, had died years earlier. 

That meant he could not ask her the question that had followed him for almost a decade.

The paternity question

Ochieng did not publicly declare that Besigye was his father. Instead, he said he wanted clarity.

He explained that many people had asked whether he was Besigye’s son, yet he had no answer because he did not know his father. His relatives had also failed to give him the information he needed.

That gap allowed speculation to grow.

Jeff Ochieng, emerged with a striking resemblance to former Forum for Democratic Change leader Dr Kizza Besigye.

Besigye responds

Besigye saw Ochieng’s photo and accepted that the resemblance was strong. But he dismissed the paternity talk.

He said many people look alike, and resemblance alone could not prove fatherhood. He also said he had never fathered anyone in Nairobi.

Besigye added that 22 years earlier, around the time Ochieng would have been born, he was in the military in Uganda. 

He therefore ruled out the possibility that he had fathered a child in Nairobi.

Still, he said Ochieng was free to visit him.

The meeting in Kasangati

Ochieng eventually travelled to Uganda and met Besigye in September 2014.

The two met at Besigye’s home in Kasangati, Wakiso District. The meeting was friendly. Ochieng also met members of Besigye’s family. They dined together and took photos.

After the meeting, Ochieng said they had talked about their lives and family backgrounds. He said the visit had helped him understand that there was no chance of a biological relationship.

For him, the journey was still worthwhile. He said he had found a friend in Besigye, whom he described as welcoming.

Besigye also treated the matter lightly. He said he would have celebrated if Ochieng had been his son, but there was no possibility to consider himself Ochieng’s parent.

The story returns years later

In December 2019, the two met again during FDC’s 15th anniversary celebrations at Namboole National Stadium.

Ochieng travelled from Kenya and managed to meet Besigye again. By then, the old paternity question had already been settled informally. The resemblance remained, but both men had moved the matter from rumour to friendship

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