Imams resist bid to convert Mama Sarah: A baptism ceremony for Mama Obama, which was planned for Saturday at the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds in Kisumu, flopped after family members opposed the move. A visiting Australian Seventh Day Adventist evangelist John Jeremic was expected at Kogelo village and would hold discussions with Mama Sarah.
Daily Nation, Kenya: Muslims on Sunday took issue with a church’s attempts to convert US President Barack Obama’s grandmother to Christianity.
The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya said it was wrong for the Seventh Day Adventists to coerce Mama Sarah Obama to turn from her Islamic faith.
Organizing secretary Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa said any attempts by the SDA clergy to convert Mama Sarah without the family’s consent will arouse the wrath of Muslims.
PICTURE: The Kenyan relatives of US President Barack Obama (from right), Norah Otieno, Consolata Oguma and Raphael Sidede with visiting Australian evangelist John Jeremic during a service organised by the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the Kenyatta Sports Ground in Kisumu on Saturday. Organizers of service had scheduled to convert Mama Sarah Obama to Christianity
“Mama Sarah should not be forced by anybody to join Christianity since she is a Muslim. Conversion must take place in a voluntary manner,” the CIPK official said.
“The government has to urgently intervene over the matter to prevent a religious stalemate. Muslims will not sit back and watch one of their own being coerced by some Christian religious leaders to convert to Christianity.”
The cleric commended the Obama family for blocking the SDA pastor’s attempt to baptize Mama Sarah.
“It was a right thing for the family members of Mama Sarah to stop the SDA pastor from baptizing her. They acted according to the requirements of the Muslim faith. A Muslim should continue to remain in his faith,” said Sheikh Khalifa.
A baptism ceremony for Mama Obama, which was planned for Saturday at the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds in Kisumu, flopped after family members opposed the move.
The baptism ceremony had been intended to be the climax of a three-week convention by the church.
But yesterday, the SDA clerics were not giving up on convincing Mama Sarah to convert to Christianity. Pastors camped at her Kogelo home for the better part of the day, trying to convince her to be baptized.
Evangelist
Already, a church located in the village, has been named after her famous grandson. The Nyang’oma Seventh Day Adventist Church is now called the Obama Seventh Day Adventist Church.
A member of the church’s top leadership in Kisumu, who declined to be named, said that visiting Australian evangelist John Jeremic was expected at the village and would hold discussions with Mama Sarah.
——————————————————————————————— FULL TEXT: Barack Obama’s inaugural speech
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Tuesday, January 20 2009
My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far?reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land ? a nagging fear that America’s decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America ? they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God?given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short?cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted ? for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk?takers, the doers, the makers of things ? some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions ? that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act ? not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions ? who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them ? that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works ? whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account ? to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day ? because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control ? and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart ? not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort ? even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard?earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus ? and non?believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West ? know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far?off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment ? a moment that will define a generation ? it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends ? hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism ? these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility ? a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
This is the source of our confidence ? the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed ? why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: “Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
For a patriarchal people like the Luo, the 44th President of the United States is their own, and his feat has boosted his people’s pride to the utmost. As far as the Luo are concerned, Barack Obama is 200 per cent Luo.
On Tuesday, a “Luo” individual will become the most powerful man in the world. A Luo? Of course. Why else would Kenya’s lakeland community which goes by that name be so electrified by Barack Obama’s impending anointment as the commander-in-chief of the world’s only superpower?
Yet the question is stark: Is Obama a Luo? To answer “yes” or “no,” one would first have to define a Luo. There are at least two possibilities. There is, first, what the Luo themselves may imagine as their blood heritage.
There is, secondly, what Paul Mboya called Luo Kitgi Gi Timbegi, a book in Dholuo which describes the character and customs of “Jokowiny.” For the character and customs of a tribal community need not coincide with its blood composition.
Language and culture
We should stress the term “Jokowiny” because, although it is almost forgotten now, that is the correct name of the Luo of Kenya and Tanzania, a people whose language and culture are almost uniform from the Luhya border to Tanzania’s Mara.
The attitude by Jokowiny that we are the Luo alienates many pedigree Luo communities, such as the Padhola, Lang’o, Kumam, Acholi and Karamojong of Uganda, the Alur of Congo, and the Nuer, Anuak Nuer, Dinka and Shilluk of the Sudan.
Indeed, the Sudanese and northern Ugandan Luo are more genuinely Luo than we because they are less removed from the original home of dispersal and, therefore, less influenced by non-Nilotic elements.
But yes, by a certain definition, the 44th President of the United States is JAKOWINY – JAKOWINY (with an “A”) being the singular form of JOKOWINY (with an “O”). It means “descendant of Owiny.”
Owiny was a brother of Adhola, the eponymous ancestor of Charles Onyango Obbo‘s Jopadhola. The PA in “JOPADHOLA” and in other Ugandan and Sudanese Luo languages is their equivalent of KA among Jokowiny (and means “of,” or “offspring of” or “homestead of“).
The celebrated name OKOT P’BITEK is really “Okot PA Bitek” (“Okot of Bitek” or “Okot son of Bitek“). In both pronunciation and writing, the “a” in PA and KA is usually dropped when the next word begins with a vowel. That is why we say JAKOWINY, and not JA-KA-OWINY.
The PA in Padhola means the same thing as the KA in such Kowiny place names as KARACHUONYO (“home of Rachuonyo“), KAMAGAMBO (“land of Magambo“) and KANYIDOTO (“where the daughters of Doto are married“).
The word element KA was common to all Nilotes, including the ancient Egyptians. The word “EGYPT” itself is only a European corruption of HEKAPTAH (“home of the god Ptah“). The KAPTAH part of HEKAPTAH is what has come down to us as “COPT.”
The same word appears in such place-names among the Kalenjin – a Nilotic people – as Kabartonjo (“land of Bartonjo“), Kabianga (“dwelling place of Bianga“) and Kabarnet (“Barnet’s base” – named after a colonial Anglo-Saxon missionary).
For the Luo belong to the culturo-linguistic super-community that anthropologists call Nilotic or Nilo-Saharan – which includes the Maasai, Kalenjin and Teso – and who now spread from Tanzania to Egypt and from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Darfur and Nigeria.
Barack Obama Senior belonged to KOGELO (“homestead of Ogelo“). He was Jakogelo (“offspring of Ogelo’s home“). Jokogelo (“people of Ogelo“) are a clan of the Alego. That is significant.
In his book History of the Southern Luo, B.A. Ogot – the eminent Luo historian – suggests that the Alego (and the professor’s own Gem people) are the quintessence of Jokowiny.
They were the first to arrive in what is now Kenya. Adhola and Owiny were leaders of an advance detachment of the Luo as they drifted along the Nile – fish being their staple. On hitting Lake Victoria, they exchanged words, and Owiny was forced to move ahead.
It was after wandering through what are now Manyala, Samia, Imbo and Sakwa – driving the autochthonous Luhya (a Bantu cluster) from their homes – that Owiny and his followers finally settled in what we now call Alego.
It was from Alego that Jokowiny spread out, northwards to Gem and Ugenya, eastwards to Seme, Kisumu and Winam and southwards to Asembo, Uyoma and across the string of water – Nyanza Gulf ? which intrudes into and divides Kowiny-land into two parts.
Yet it is appropriate that the term “Jokowiny” is now in disuse, except among Adhola’s people. They retain in folk memory the bitter quarrel that forced their brother Owiny eastwards. So they know all the Luo to the east of them as Jokowiny.
Completely swallowed
But since then other Luo and even non-Luo branches have arrived to commingle with Jokowiny. Among these are my own group – Abasuba – who, although completely swallowed by the Luo, were originally not even Nilo-Saharan, but a composite of Bantu refugees, mostly from Buganda.
A culturally imperious community, its ethnic arrogance has been heightened manifold by the colonially created ethnic rivalry that characterises Kenya’s politics. But I repeat that the arrogance cannot be explained by any “ethnic purity.”
The Kenya Luo are so influenced by other communities that they are a mind-boggling heterogeneity of blood, culture and language. One reason is that they adopted exogamy (the taking of wives from other tribes) very early in their Southward Ho.
They shared with the ancient Hellenes the habit of waylaying foreign women and literally pulling them into bed as wives. So for Senior to grab wives from as far away as Hawaii and Massachusetts – and Caucasian ones to boot – was no big deal.
Given time, he might even have grabbed an Afghan, a Cherokee, an Eskimo, a Fijian, an Iraqi, a Lithuanian, a Mongolian, a Pole, a Shona, a Vietnamese, a Wolof, a Yoruba and a Zaramo – not to mention hundreds from Luoland, apart from Kezia.
The Luo would have noted his “he-man-ship” with complete approval. That is what makes them such a “bloody” heterogeneity. But that, too, is why, in their view, Senior’s son, the 44th President of the United States, cannot be anything but a Luo.
They are fiercely patriarchal, thus the offspring belong strictly to the father’s tribe, clan or what the Luo call THUR and DHOOT. THUR refers to the ridge that rises between two streams and is often identified with a clan.
DHOOT (the two “o”s pronounced separately) is the word for “door.” It literally means “mouth of the house” – from DHOK, “mouth,” and OT, “house.” The “mouth” element can be seen also in the term DHOLUO, the name of Jokowiny’s language, literally: “mouth of the Luo.”
Jokowiny assume that people speak with their mouths. But not all Luo communities think so. The Acholi know their language as LEPLUO (“tongue of the Luo“). However, used away from real doors, the word DHOOT refers to the immediate genealogical “house,” namely, the gentile clan.
Person of my house
All Nilotes had the habit of calling a spouse a “house.” In polite society, a Luo speaks of JAODA (“my wife” or “my husband“), a word which translates literally as “person of my house.” When, in Genesis, Joseph says he has found favour in “Pharaoh’s house,” he is resorting to the Nilotic euphemism for “wife,” here the queen.
Barack Obama is 50 per cent Caucasian, but as far as the Luo are concerned, only a Luo is capable of deeds as heroic as Barack’s. In tradition, the Luo divided humanity into three categories ? Joluo (the noblest), Jolang’o and Jomwa. The rest of mankind were Mwa, worse than useless.
But, of course, a shameless Mwa people called Britons punctured gaping holes into this bloated arrogance just by hurling a magical spear known as the gun.
Nevertheless, because he has done those deeds a whole continent away from Luoland, Barack outshines Adhola, Aeneas, Ausonius, Cadmus, Cain, Danaos, Delphos, Hesy, Imhotep, Luanda Magere, Gor Mahia, Tom Mboya, Memnon, Menes, Nyikang’o, Jaramogi Odinga, Owiny and Pelasgus among other Nilotic heroes.
In short, his mother does not enter into the equation, even though she contributed 50 per cent of his biological make-up and almost 100 per cent of his cultural upbringing.
As far as the Luo are concerned, Barack Obama is 200 per cent Luo.
That is the point you miss by dismissing Barack Obama as a mere American who will not give priority to Kenya, Luoland and Nyangoma-Kogelo. A people does not live by bread alone. By pulling off a feat like that and boosting their pride to the utmost, Barack has already delivered.
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About The Author: Philip Ochieng — is a Kenyan Luo, and an Editor with the Nation Media Group. Like Obama Senior, he too went to the US on the famous Tom Mboya Airlift of 1959 [when hundreds of Kenyan students were given scholarships to American universities]. He first met Obama Senior in Tom Mboya’s Nairobi office [Mboya was then the secretary general of the Kenya Federation of Labour]. Obama and Ochieng met up again on returning to Nairobi and remained drinking buddies for many years.
It’s only tyrants who live in mortal fear of people power
Today the nations of the world may be divided into two classes — the nations in which the government fears the people, and the nations in which the people fear the government.” Amos R. E. Pinochet
Every time I see images of brutality by a government — any — against its people, I am reminded of this quote.
Fear is a little word whose power and consequences is right up there with gravity and love. Like gravity and love, fear is indispensable for survival. And I don’t just mean human survival — I include specifically the survival of oppressive governments.
Oppressive governments live in mortal fear of fearless citizens. Consequently, they will try to instil maximum fear into the people. They do this through threats of deprivation or violence, and occasionally, use of deadly force. When such tactics fail, governments are thrown into panic. They then resort to increasingly desperate measures.
But if fearless citizens give oppressive governments sleepless nights, it is when such citizens unite and acquire arms that terrify them. Fearless, united and armed citizens are the stuff which political nightmares are made of. It is why governments will go to great lengths, in the name of law and order, to deny citizens the right to freely organise or own guns.
I do not think Kenya has reached the level of tension and paranoia that is the norm in repressive regimes. We are still a relatively free society. But there are times when it appears we are determined to tempt fate. There are those who say that, after our dalliance with chaos and death early this year, we are unlikely to go there again. We walked to the gates of hell, saw the horror of it, and turned back — in fear. We learned our lesson. Or did we, really?
Part of the reason it was easy to mobilise communities against each other during last year’s season of infamy was that the perceived ‘enemy camp‘ was easily identifiable — those seen, rightly or wrongly, as monopolising power and resources. In a coalition arrangement such as we now have, where almost every community is represented in Government, the ‘enemy camp‘ is not another tribe.
In the absence of discernible ideological fault-lines between the coalition partners, and the lack of a true opposition, the obvious differentiator becomes the glaring socio-economic dichotomy: the haves and have-nots; the rich and the poor; the privileged and the marginalised; the smooth fat cats versus the scrawny, skinny rats. It is a fault line just as dangerous as ethnic rivalry and enmity.
The death toll in the disturbances in Kenya (December 2007) — numbered
in the thousands | More Pictures |
To reiterate: the thing that terrifies governments is the deadly combination of fearlessness, unity and arms in the hands of oppressed citizens. It is what puts many oppressive governments out of business.
Territorial supremacy
But what should really scare the daylights out of any oppressive government is something else: geography.
Consider just two places, Waziristan, Pakistan and Juarez, Mexico.
Waziristan is part of what is called the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or Fata. Since Pakistan’s independence, Fata has virtually operated outside the control of Islamabad’s central authority. Fata has become a euphemism for the lost territories. Here, tribal warlords, Al Qaeda and the Taliban call the shots despite a sustained campaign by more than 80,000 regular and paramilitary forces of the Pakistani army. And yet this is an area of just 11,585 square kilometres ? seven times smaller than Kenya’s coast province. The reason: fearless, united and armed fighters aided by a friendly geography ? a rugged terrain with a porous border (with Afghanistan) through which arms freely flow.
The case of Juarez is even more interesting. This is a bustling Mexican city across the border from the Unites States city of El Paso, Texas. By some accounts, it is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, animated by a lucrative cross-border drug trade. Despite waves of massive crackdowns, often coordinated with US authorities, and sophisticated border surveillance, drug trafficking, murders and kidnappings continue unabated.
The Kenyan Election Violence (Dec. 2007) in Video
Juarez and Waziristan may appear remote from Kenya but their geographical situations are not. Kenya has long, porous borders with lawless Somalia and an insecure border with Ethiopia, on account of the Oromo Liberation Front and other bandits. The unpatrolled border with Uganda and Sudan means weapons can easily be smuggled into the country.
Geography.
It is the reason the so-called Sabaot Land Defence Force continues to defy extinction despite serious blows inflicted on it by the Kenya Army. Geography is the reason Mugabe’s regime has been lucky so far: no rugged borders with unstable countries where arms could easily flow in.
Beware of geography. Happy New Year!.
——————————————————————— About The Author: Kap Kirwok — Mr. Kirwok is based in the USA.
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“I can’t cope with new status”, says Obama’s granny. A visitor’s book at the gate and another outside her home reveal the huge number of personalities and organised groups visiting the home. Some bring with them gifts which include goats and material for clothes.
By George Olwenya and John Oywa
With only a month to the inauguration of her grandson as America’s 44th President, Mama Sarah Obama has become more than a celebrity.
The American and Kenyan governments have taken full charge of her security with the number of guests visiting her home in Alego Kogelo, Siaya, increasing tenfold since the US election on November 4.
Mama Sarah Obama Her movements have been restricted for security reasons and the two governments are monitoring every move at her home as the clock tick’s to January 20 — the day President-elect Barack Obama takes over as the President of the world’s most powerful country.
“She is now a VIP and must be treated as so. We do not want to leave anything to chance,” said a senior police officer at the Nyanza Provincial headquarters.
Sarah’s home, once just like any other in the village, is now teeming with visitors and trappings of power. She now has electricity — which took the Government only a week to install, a fence, a metal gate and a police post.
The Government is now drilling a well at the home. Kogelo Market, once a sleepy outpost, is now competing with many urban centres in the province.
Mama Sarah, 87, has received close to 5,000 visitors since Barack Obama’s historic election as the America’s first black President.
The daily arrival of visitors at her home averages between 300 to 500 guests per day, all of whom she has to greet and speak to.
The Standard confirmed that the US Embassy in Nairobi is briefed on the situation at the home on a daily basis.
Since the victory, Kogelo and particularly Mama Sarah’s home has been turned into a tourist attraction as visitors from far and wide throng to see the village that produced a man who re-wrote the history of the world’s super power.
The ever jovial grandmother has been complaining of a bad knee, yet she has to keep up with a busy schedule.
She has shaken hands with hundreds of thousands of people, posed for pictures with hundreds of dignitaries and fielded questions from countless number of journalists across the globe.
“This visitors are many and I do not even have the time to go to my kitchen to cook as I use to do,” says Mama Sarah.
The grand mother said “Gibiro motamo wan’ga” (they have overwhelmed me) adding that she has not seen such a scenario before.
A chat with mama Sarah behind her main house did not take even five minutes as a security detail attached to her appeared “when I see you I know the visitors want me,” she told the policewoman.
About The Author: Philip Ochieng — is a Kenyan 
