On Saturday, October 5, former Kakamega Senator Bonnie Khalwale announced that his first wife Adelaide Shikanga Khalwale had died.
Khalwale described her as the wind behind his wings and the reason behind his success, both politically and as a medical doctor.
Very few people knew about her until her untimely death, below are some of the less known facts Kenyans.co.ke discovered about the private life of Adelaide.
She was the mother of four; two sons and two daughters, one who was adopted and currently works as a high school teacher in Kakamega.
One of her sons is a lawyer, and the other an auditor while her biological daughter works at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Adelaide worked as a secretary at the Department of Education at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega County.
She was married to the former senator for the last 39 years, being the first of his two wives.
In 2003, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer but a series of unrelenting treatments rid her of the disease.
In early 2019, she came down with multiple myeloma, which is a form of blood cancer. Post chemotherapy blood and bone marrow profiles later confirmed she had been cured.
On October 3, 2019, she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension which was the cause of her death on October 5, barely two days after starting medication.
The former legislator revealed that she died in his arms as he tried to resuscitate her after she collapsed at her Malinya home in Ikolomani, Kakamega County as she was heading to the bathroom.
