Capheus Onyango

**Capheus Onyango** is a young man living in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the owner and driver of a Van Damn and, in season one, desperately tries to earn enough money to buy quality medicine for his mother, who lives with AIDS.

Desparate for money, Capheus traveled through a bad neighborhood and clashed with the Superpower Gang. Fending them off brought the attention of the drug lord Silas Kabaka, who had similar issues with the gang and hires Capheus to transport his daughter Amondi Kabaka to and from her leukemia treatments, paid for with AIDS medicine for his mother. Eventually, however, Capheus had to rescue Silas from the Superpowers' leader, Githu.

Capheus' clashes against the Superpower Gang became popular news in Kibera, leading to an informal interview with Zakia Asalache, a journalist with whom he becomes romantically involved. The interveiw quickly pushed Capheus into the political spotlight, leading him to run for local office.

 **Relationships**

### **Inside the cluster**

* **Riley Blue:** During Season One, Capheus has several coversations with Riley, in Art Is Like Religion, W. W. N. Double D? and Death Doesn't Let You Say Goodbye. When she visits him, Capheus tries to help her with coping with the deaths of her husband and own child and her escaping London and returning to Iceland, where he comments on how it would be nice to see her father Gunnar again after years of being apart.

* **Will Gorski:** In I Can't Leave Her Capheus helps Will rescue Riley by hotwiring an ambulance, allowing them to escape from the hospital where she is being held.

* **Sun Bak:** Sun helps Capheus with her fighting skills during his dispute with the Superpower gang. Capheus initially believes Sun to be a spirit, somehow connected to Van Damme. Sun and Capheus share the experience of having fathers who were killed (an experience not shared by any other member of the cluster besides Wolfgang, who killed his own father). Sun and Capheus enjoy each other's company and are grateful for the bond they share as clustermates.

* **Wolfgang Bogdanow:** He briefly have seen Wolfgang and said hi when Wolfgang visits him in their place.

* **Kala Dandekar:** Kala visits Capheus and they watch a Van Damme movie together, while discussing the need for courage.

* **Nomi Marks:** When Nomi is attempting to escape from Whispers, she steals a car but does not know how to drive. Capheus visits and uses his driving skills to get Nomi to safety.

* **Lito Rodriguez:** Capheus and Lito share a love of film. Both reminisce about watching movies with their mothers as children, saying that the films made them feel stronger, funnier and more confident, inspiring them to become the men they are today.

### **Non-Cluster Sensates**

* During Capheus' political rally, he establish an eye contact connection with four as of yet unidentified sensates.

### **Non-Sensates**

* **Shiro:** As an adult, Capheus remains extremely close to Shiro, his mother. He lives with her and attempts to raise funds for medication because she is diagnosed with AIDS. Despite his efforts, she remains very ill because most drugs he procures are watered down or placebo drugs. She does not find relief until he accepts a job from a druglord with a violent reputation.

* **Jela:** Capheus' other significant relationship is with his friend, Jela, who works as conductor on the Van Damme. Jela admires and looks up to Capheus and shares in his successes.
* **Githu**: Throughout Season One, Capheus and Githu develop an antagonistic relationship with one another. Githu and the Superpower Gang have made attacks on Capheus a few times, each time, Capheus retaliated with courage (and assists from his clustermates). After the rescue of Silas Kabaka, Nairobi knew Capheus as "Van Damme," and Githu heard stories about Van Damme and the Superpower Gang. Despite the gang's reputation souring, their leader grew a fond of Capheus and pled many hollow threats before speaking with him.
* **Silas Kabaka**: Preceeding the first ambush from the Superpower Gang, Silas finds and offers Capheus some work, paying him in AIDS medicine for Shiro. To a point, they worked together, but soon, Capheus backs out of the operations because of the brutality. This leaves Silas Kabaka vulnerable to Githu and the Superpower Gang and was capture. Upon rescue, the crime lord respected Van Damme, though Capheus continues to express suspicion when Kabaka tries to change and make amends.
* **Amondi Kabaka**: Since meeting Amondi, Capheus and her quickly developed a supportive and friendly relationship, sharing with one another different interests and how Jean-Claude inspired them in their lives. It is also shown that Amondi has much aspirations to be much like Van Damme.
* **Zakia Asalache:** A reporter who interviews Capheus, creating a video that goes viral after the sensates of the cluster give a stirring and inspirational speech. Soon after, Zakia asks Capheus out, and they begin a relationship.

 **Skills**

* **Expert Driver**: Capheus has gained his unconventional but very effective driving skills from his experience of driving the Van Damn. He used these skills to help Nomi escape from the Police as she did not know how to drive in We Will All Be Judged by the Courage of Our Hearts.
* **Auto Mechanic**: Knows how to hot-wire vehicles. He helps Will rescue Riley by hotwiring an ambulance.
* **Wisdom**: His sense of justice, optimism and his sad history made him the wisest in the cluster, acting as a counsellor multiple times.