Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen (born 12 March 1979) is a Kenyan lawyer and politician serving as the Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports. He is also the former Cabinet Secretary for Roads, Transport, and Public Works in Kenya. Hon. Murkomen is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a three-time elected Senator of Elgeyo Marakwet County. He served for 21 months as Roads and Transport Cabinet.
He is a family man and a devout Christian.
He is the son of Johana otieno Murkomen Kanda and Mama Margaret.[1]
Murkomen studied at Chawis Primary School in Embobut Forest, Marakwet East where he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam in 1993. He was not satisfied with the exams results and decided to retake the exam in 1994. He later joined St Joseph’s High School kakamega and transferred to St Patrick's High School Iten, where he sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exam.
In the year 2000 Murkomen joined the University of Nairobi, Parkland Campus and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 2004. While studying, he was elected chairman of Fellowship of Christian Unions’ National Students Executive Council. He was later awarded a scholarship to study a master’s in law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He further studied at the American University Washington College of Law in United States.[2]
Before he got into competitive politics, Murkomen was a political analyst and commentator at Citizen TV just before the 2013 general elections.[3] Murkomen was first elected as Senator for Elgeyo-Marakwet County in 2013 on a United Republican Party (URP) ticket.[4][5] He vied for the same seat during the 2017 elections, this time on a Jubilee party ticket and was re-elected to a second term. Murkomen was elected majority senate leader in 2013, but he was later replaced by West Pokot Senator Samuel Poghisio as the Senate Majority Leader. in 2020.[6]
Before his nomination as a cabinet minister,[7] Murkomen had been elected for the third time to be the senator for Elgeyo-Marakwet County in the 2022 general elections in a UDA party ticket. Murkomen won the seat with a 141,091 votes against his competitor former Elgeyo-Marakwet County governor Alex Tolgos who vied under the Jubilee Party and came second. He resigned as the senator in order to take the position of Cabinet Secretary.[8] In September 2024, he participated at the 10 kilometer race] at the Nairobi City Marathon and completed successfully.[9]
Murkomen is married to Gladys Wanjiru Kipchumba and is a father to three sons and a daughter.[10]