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.
Mama Sarah is carrying special gifts for her grandson — a Luo traditional three-legged stool, a flywhisk and a shield, which are symbols of leadership. “I wanted to give him a spear too, but I have been told that due to security reasons, I will not be allowed to board a plane with it,[Because of Homeland Insecurity]” Mama Sarah told The Standard.
By George Olwenya, Kenya
Mama Sarah Obama has started her journey to the US to witness the swearing-in of her grandson Barack Obama as the 44th American President.
And she is not travelling empty-handed. As a grandmother, she is carrying special gifts for her grandson — a Luo traditional three-legged stool, a flywhisk and a shield, which are symbols of leadership. “I wanted to give him a spear too, but I have been told that due to security reasons, I will not be allowed to board a plane with it,” Mama Sarah told The Standard.
Mama Sarah was in a jubilant mood as she left Nyang’oma Kogelo village for Nairobi. There was a battery of foreign and local journalists to record the moment.
“The day I was waiting for has finally come… I cannot hide my joy,” she said, adding: “I am going to be Kenya’s ambassador during the occasion and I will live to the expectations.”
Mama Sarah will put up with relatives in Nairobi before departing to the US on Friday from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, only a day before the US President-elect kicks of his inaugural celebrations by taking the day-long journey to Washington DC.
Obama and his family will start their daylong journey with an event in Philadelphia before boarding the train and picking up Vice-President-elect Joe Biden and his family in Wilmington, Delaware. The group will then make a stop in Baltimore before making their way to Washington DC.
Mama Sarah Obama, the grandmother to US President-elect Barack Obama, arrives at Kisumu Airport on Sunday. She was to fly to Nairobi and then Washington DC to witness Obama’s inauguration on January 20. Mama Sarah Obama has started her journey to the US to witness the swearing-in of her grandson Barack Obama as the 44th American President.
Obama’s train trip evokes memories of US’s 16th President Abraham Lincoln who travelled the same route by train to get to Washington DC for his inauguration in 1861.
Lincoln left his home in Springfield for a 12-day journey to Washington DC and made 101 speeches during stopovers.
Among the relatives accompanying Mama Sarah are her son Said Obama and his wife Beatrice; Kogelo community spokesman Nicholas Rajula and his wife Nelly; Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School BOG chairman Charles Ochome and the Principal Eunita Obiero, as well as Lynn Yaya, a sister to Prime minister Raila Odinga’s wife Ida.
Mama Sarah said she was delighted as the big day (inauguration) nears and her going to America to attend the occasion means a lot to Kenya.
“We are going to install him so that he can serve the world,” she said in Dholuo. “When he sees me he will be very happy because he will have seen his blood,” she said amid prolonged laughter.
“I know Barack will be very happy to see me. My presence will mean a lot to him,” she added.
She added she would have wished to carry a spear to give Obama but was told that it will not be allowed through the airport.
“Rajula tried to carry a spear to give Barack when he won the Senate seat but he was blocked at the airport,” she recalled.
After the inauguration, Mama Sarah said it would now be upon Obama to work hard and ensure he helped those suffering across the world.
In Kogelo, among those who bid her farewell included senior official of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Organization in Siaya district, Mrs Patricia Apoli, and members of the Kogelo cultural committee who were putting final touches to a cultural festival that is set to start on January 16 at Kogelo Primary School to celebrate the installation of Obama as President of the United States.
The Mayor of Washington Mr Adrian Fenty estimates that up to five million people will attend the inauguration as it is the first time ever the US has an African-American president.
All hotels in Washington DC and surrounding suburbs were booked months ago, and tourists now have to make do with alternative accommodation with families willing to sub-let their houses.
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THE GIFTS
Click Pics To Enlarge
Three-Legged Stool Kom Nyaluo
Flywhisk Orengo
Spear (Tong) and Shield
—————————————————————- Reference:A Kenyan Transition to Power — Obama’s Relatives Find That ‘Change’ Is Their Watchword, Too — By Stephanie McCrummen — Washington Post Foreign Service. Sunday, January 18, 2009;
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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.
Mama Sarah Obama, grandmother of American President-elect Barack Obama, was on Monday at the centre of World Aids Day activities in Kisumu where she flagged off an awareness marathon.
As soon as residents got wind that Mama Sarah was at the Jomo Kenyatta Grounds [Click To View Picture], a huge crowd converged.
A jovial Mama Sarah, who arrived in a two-car convoy escorted by female security personnel, waved cheerfully at the crowds. Her security detail had a torrid time trying to stop the excited crowd from shaking her hand.
‘Kogelo ber kata an be angima (DHOLUO for Kogelo is fine and am also doing well),’ she told the crowd.
She, however, sidestepped a question about her travel plans to the US for Mr Obama’s inauguration.
PICTURE:Ms Sarah Hussein Obama, grandmother of US President-elect Barack Obama, cuts a tape to officially open a children’s park during the World Aids Day marathon at Jomo Kenyatta sports ground in Kisumu on Monday. On her right is Ms Betty Okero, an Aids activist. World Aids Day celebrations were marked in various towns countrywide.
Earlier, the 86-year-old Mama Sarah, who slipped into Kisumu quietly on Sunday, had flagged off the World Aids Marathon at seven in the morning.
Organisers said that they had chosen Mama Sarah because of her high profile.
They also said the fact that President-elect Obama had undergone HIV counselling and testing in Kisumu on his 2006 trip was more reason to choose her.
‘There is a lot of interest in the Obama family,’ said Betty Okero of the Civil Society Network, one of the organisers.
‘If her presence here today will help reduce new infections and give hope, we welcome that,’ said Ms Okero.
Ms Alie Eleveld of Safe Water and Aids Project said Mr Obama’s involvement with the World Aids Marathon was the main reason for choosing Mama Sarah to flag it off.
‘Barack Obama has been a great supporter of the World Aids Marathon, so we thought it would be a good gesture to invite his granny,’ said Ms Eleveld.
Speaking to the Nation after the function, Mama Sarah said that she was happy to be part of the event.
‘I feel greatly privileged to be invited because my grandson is very concerned about the ravages of HIV,’ she said.
Pictures of President-elect Obama taken at the VCT clinic during his 2006 visit are extensively being used to drive the campaign against HIV and Aids.
Staff at the clinic began distributing the posters in the run-up to the US election.
On election night, the VCT clinic set up a temporary facility at the Kogelo dispensary where villagers kept up with events in the US on a giant TV screen.
A Liverpool VCT clinic official said the events were geared towards reducing HIV infections in Nyanza Province.
The province leads in HIV prevalence rates in the country at 15 per cent, double the national rate of 7.4 per cent, according to the latest Kenya Aids Index Survey by the National Aids/STI Control Programme.
The survey further found that 1.4 million adults in Kenya are living with the virus with Nyanza contributing the highest percentage.
‘She is very supportive because she knows HIV and Aids is a killer. She believes in prevention and giving hope to those who are living with the virus,’ said Ms Okero of Mama Sarah.
ReTHUGliTOM Dinesh D’Souza is attempting to embarrass Mr Obama by soliciting donations to a “Compassion Fund” for the senator’s half-brother, George Onyango Obama, who lives in Nairobi’s Huruma estate.
How the Right Uses People of Color to Foster Racism:
White supremacy, sensing the need to repackage itself for consumption in polite company, partially fills the demand for racist bile by outsourcing to mercenary writers of color. Michelle Malkin and Dinesh D’Souza — of Filipino and Indian descent, respectively — are top guns of the genre, ever eager to slander non-whites, especially Blacks, as threats to Euro-American white “civilization.” — Margaret Kimberly | Read More Here |
By KEVIN J KELLEY in New York and ERIC OLOO in Kisumu, Kenya
Prominent US conservative Dinesh D’Souza is attempting to embarrass Mr Obama by soliciting donations to a “Compassion Fund” for the senator’s half-brother who lives in Nairobi’s Huruma estate.
The writer, a supporter of Republican candidate John McCain, told the Nation on Tuesday that the fund-raising was meant part to highlight Sen Obama’s “hypocrisy.”
“The Democratic candidate has been “harping on the theme of helping the underprivileged while doing nothing to help his half-brother,” Mr D’Souza said.
George Onyango Obama, a 26-year-old son of Barack Obama Snr, attends college in Nairobi, and has been at the centre of Western media.
On Wednesday, Sen Obama’s relatives in Kenya rubbished the fund, saying it was motivated by malice.
Mzee Abong’o Obama a paternal uncle to the said the fund was not set up “good faith“. Ms Auma Obama, a sister to the senator said those behind the fund had been ill informed by negative publicity in the Western media.
Ms Auma said that the family was never approached with any offer for help and dismissed any such need.
“We wonder where D’souza got the information about family misery. He should have come down to Huruma to see whether George is suffering,” said Ms Auma, adding that D’souza was only after tarnishing the image of the senator.
But D’esouza said money collected for the “George Obama Compassion Fund” will be forwarded to Sen Obama’s presidential campaign on the condition it be used to help the senator’s half-brother.
He wrote in his blog on Tuesday that he had seeded the fund with $1000 of his own. He urged his readers to send contributions to a post office box in California, saying “even a few thousand dollars would completely transform this man’s life.”
“Let’s foster Obama family values, and give a break to a guy who really needs it,” Mr D’Souza added in his appeal for donations. Because the effort has just begun, Mr D’Souza said, he did not know how much might be raised.
He has never spoken with George Obama, Mr D’Souza said, and does not know whether the senator’s half-brother wants help from American conservatives using him to help elect Sen McCain.
Mr D’Souza said he was unaware whether George Obama even wished to move out of Huruma.
George Obama has previously told reporters that he was content with his situation. He also defended his half-brother from charges of being neglectful of his Kenyan relations.
Mr D’Souza said he had not contributed to organisations that strive to improve housing conditions for thousands of Kenyan slum-dwellers because his “philanthropic activities were focused on India,” where he was born.
But in Siaya, the Obama family is demanding police protection after a robbery attempt. The senator’s grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, said robbers broke the kitchen door and attempted to remove a solar panel from the roof of the main house.
“I only realised something had gone wrong when I went to make breakfast. I did not hear anything as it was raining”.
Mama Sarah said she saw a ladder against the wall at the back of the main house.
Although the incident appeared like an ordinary robbery, the family was not taking chances with security, given that their grandson was gunning for US presidency, she said.
“I don’t understand the motive of the thieves, since nothing had been stolen from the kitchen,” she said, adding that police needed to provide security to the family But these are just people from the village who know every corner of the home,” she added.
A month ago, the family requested for security from the Siaya police station, but their request fell on deaf ears.
District commissioner
On Wednesday, the Siaya police officer Johnston Okasida and district commissioner Boaz Cherutich visited the home and pledged that a patrol base would be erected at Kogello Village.
It also emerged that the State might indeed consider granting the Mama Sara security, but this can only be done after the provincial security committee led by Nyanza PC Paul Olando recommends it to the commissioner of police.
Deputy spokesman of police Charles Owino said depending on the analysis of the security situation on the ground, the local administration and regular police could consider deploying policemen to the home as they awaited the commissioner’s word.
“A local analysis will have to be done to ascertain the risk and recommend to the commissioner who also in consultation with other offices might approve and assign officers to her,” said the commissioner’s spokesman.
The family was also advised to seek the intervention of the divisional police officer in cases of clear and present danger.
1.One People’s Project — Dinesh D’Souza is soft-spoken genteel man at times (and we say this because listening to him can make you forget how much of an asshole he is), he is also a major conservative player, and as we see with black and other conservatives of color, frank and often pathetic deconstructions of our racial concerns become the order of the day. D’Souza is best known for this, courtesy of a 1995 book called the End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society, which was so controversial, even black conservatives took offense to it.
3. From HellBlazer.com — Dinesh D’Souza’s stinky loaf entitled Two Cheers for Colonialism provides a really great sniff test for this point of view. After reading this article, I had the distinct impression that D’Souza is nothing more than an Uncle Tom. A toady for the ruling class.
Mama Sarah Obama, the grandmother to US President-elect Barack Obama, arrives at 
Prominent US conservative 
