Dennis Ombachi: In The Kitchen Of Controversies

Dennis Ombachi went from a grumbling Kenya Sevens rugby player to a sensational Tiktok maverick almost overnight.

Over the past one year, Ombachi has become a somewhat pesky Tiktok (and Twitter) personality who has chosen to live his life as controversially as possible - adhering to no rules, setting his own path, upending societal norms and defying all 'cultural' structures.

The ex-rugby star, who has since hang his spiked boots and found a colorful life as a 'self-taught' chef and a calamitous father, seems to always find a new way to upset, amuse or rile up the masses, and it doesn't matter where he does it at, there's always a ready audience for his online hanky-panky.

For instance, in less than 24 hours, a video that Ombachi posted on Twitter (posted on the 11th of July, 2022), has already racked up a mind-boggling 2.5 Million views, attracted close to 65k likes and has, almost literally, shaken the very basement Twitter stands on.

The video, which has now become a hot global topic and has been reposted by some of the biggest social pages across the world, from the 'Shaderoom' to the 'House of Highlights', sees Ombachi casually (and rather recklessly) toss his son into a swimming pool while praising his newly-acquired swimming skills and 'water safety' adeptness.

Millions were shocked to see the baby flung into the pool as he slapped the water with his face, flipped around, struggled to catch a breath and seemed to pant breathlessly with his tiny hands flailing underneath the surface.

The tot's frail coughs and whimpers make the video's saddest moments.

But this is not the first time Ombachi's unorthodox parenting has unsettled the internet. The cooking maven has, more often than not, gotten into various tiffs with some disgruntled followers who were deeply offended with his parenting eccentricities.

Ombachi's peculiar closeness to his son, and the suspect absence of the boy's mother from almost all of his photos and videos, has become a contested topic online and no one has exemplified the Ombachi-bashing better than a lady named Lilian Owenga, who ostensibly lives in London and has never missed an opportunity to attack, berate and harangue Ombachi for his handling of his own children.

Lilian has even daringly questioned whether Ombachi is the real father of the children given the way he heedlessly plays with them and seems to 'turn them into toys'.

When Ombachi seemed to use his son as a lifting gymnastics tool, Lilian tore into him saying, "I believe he is NOT sure if biologically he's the father and that's why he's determined to ruin that child's life, get him disabled. We can all see the baby is NOT happy..."

When a shirtless Ombachi cradled his newborn daughter at the hospital, she lost it, saying, "Congratulations! But you're sitting on the baby's beddings! The skin of the baby is very fragile. At the same time, carry the baby delicately across to avoid breaking the spinal cord..."

And when Ombachi, yet again, posted a video holding the baby with one hand, high in the air, as he smooched him and tossed him around, Lilian attacked again, saying," This man should buy a toy. The baby is too young for this and might develop complications. Is there no other way of entertaining the world apart from turning a child into a toy?"

Ombachi is doing more than just wrestling his way into his children's hearts - he's also a master chef who is making quite the killing on Tiktok.

The rugby Olympian now boasts of over 100 million Tiktok views, 14 million likes and 1.2 million followers for cookery videos that last a little over 1 minute.

The balding and (thankfully) bearded content creator tackles anything - He'll show you how to expertly fry fish, show you how to skin a rabbit, show you how to dismember a chicken and show you how to slice the sleekest pieces of onion. All on his balcony.

It's the glorious first bite he does that really wakes up your hunger pangs and jostles you towards the 'LIKE' button.

The past few days have seen Ombachi get featured on prime international forums, from Reddit to 9GAG and the trend seems to only getting started.

And while he may seem like a happy chap who's all into lathering his kids with kisses and baking a meaty rabbit at 3pm, Ombachi also takes time to check his detractors and remind them that he's more than just a little, homemade ball you can kick around.

When a Twitter user (@jackWERE7) threw shots at him asking, "Kwani @ombachi13 hana bibi ama he's just too mean to employ a house help? Why is he doing all those women chores?" Ombachi was fast with the replies, sending missile after missile.

“I pay my help more than what you send your mother every month, sit at the corner with your daddy issues, najua ni clout una chase na followers kadhaa. We know your type ntaku engage once because kamande ina ungua,” he started.

"Alafu piga picha ukiwa kwako tuone una ishi aje, wacha kupiga picha kwa mall kama watoto time ya Christmas," he finished.

For a man who's that good in the kitchen - and the field, you'd be careful how to approach him before he hunts you down, skins you, pins you to a stick and barbecues you for lunch.