Kenya: How the Obamas Got Hussein Name

President Barack Obama's grandfather's conscription in the army during World War Two was to change the identity of his entire lineage.

A posting to Zanzibar saw him convert to Islam and take the name Hussein, which was passed on to his grandson, as is the Luo custom.

Several years down the line, although his grandson, the US president, is not a Muslim, his name has attracted controversy with his detractors demanding that he should denounce the faith to which he does not in any case subscribe.

Other, less prominent members of the Obama lineage, go about their business unperturbed in Kanyadhiang, a small village in Kendu Bay in Homa Bay County.

They live away from the relentless scrutiny of the rest of the family members in Alego Kogello, in Siaya.

Barrack Obama Snr's sister Hawa Igambi -- President Obama's aunt -- lives in Kokal village, where she sells charcoal to make ends meet.

She describes her brother, the president's father as a social, intelligent, generous man who was ready to share whatever he had with friends and relatives and above all was very frank and daring.

"I doubt if any of his children is as intelligent as he was. Barrack was a rare brain who was top in his class throughout his education life," she said.

Contrary to tight police security, and the national and international attention given to her stepmother Mama Sarah Obama, at Nyang'oma Kogelo, Mrs. Igambi's home is deserted whenever she goes out to eke her daily living, while the two sons are away working.

At her Kambero residence, Mrs Igambi said she still believed there was foul play in her brother's death, saying a disgruntled top government official had a hand in it.

My brother Barack was found dead in his vehicle in 1982 while holding the steering wheel with both hands near Woodley Estate in Nairobi, in what a majority of passers-by couldn't believe, with some waving at him thinking he was alive," she recalled.

"His vehicle was in the centre of the road with no indication of an accident neither was his body bearing any form of injury," she said.

Unknown to many is that the father of the US president was born in Kobama Village, in Kendu Bay on the banks of the Awach.

It is said that President Obama's grandfather, Onyango Obama, who gave him the name Hussein, migrated from Kendu Bay, back to Alego Usonga which his clansmen had left.

An internet photo of President Obama in front of a tiny round grass-thatched house, side by side with one of him in a White House lounge was actually taken in Kendu Bay.

According to an elder in Kendu, Mzee Elly Yonga, after returning from Zanzibar, Hussein Onyango Obama was a controversial figure in Kendu Bay, defying the chief and earning himself a following for his ability to stand up to authority.

In the book Dreams From My Father, President Obama describes his grandfather: "He would eat all his meals at a table and chair, under a mosquito netting, with a knife and fork."

Secretary General of the Obama Opiyo Foundation, Mr Elijah Kobilo, said that contrary to the suggestion that Hussein Onyango Obama went to Nyang'oma Kogelo in Siaya before he bore his three children, the three were actually born in Kendu Bay in Karachuonyo before they moved to Siaya.

Nope, he's definitely not a Muslim.

His biological father was a Muslim.
His stepfather was a Muslim.
As a child Barry was enrolled in school as a Muslim in Jakarta Indonesia.
Barack Hussein 0bama's first and middle names are Arabic Muslim names.
0bama recited the opening lines of the Muslim call to prayer, which includes a vow of fidelity to Islam, in flawless Arabic on a radio program. - Nikolos Kristoff, NYTs, 3-06-07
On that same program he said he thinks the call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on earth."
0bama belonged to Rev. Wright's (a former Muslim) church for twenty years. Many congregants are Muslims.
0bama said that the U.S. is "one of the largest Muslim countries in the world."
0bama holds Muslim celebrations in the WH but canceled the National Day of Prayer.
President 0bama's religious adviser, Eboo Patel, once deemed the United States “the ideal place for the renewal of Islam.”
0bama does not give gifts on Christmas.
0bama doesn't celebrate his birthday.
0bama falsely attributes Muslim participation in the founding of America.
0bama required that the cross be covered when he gave a speech at Notre Dame.
Christian symbol covered up during Obama’s Georgetown speech
0bama's first major speech in office was a "Muslim outreach" speech in Cairo Egypt.
“The American President told me in confidence that he is a Muslim,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Nile TV.
0bama gave strong support to the Cordoba House community center and mosque to be built at the Ground Zero site of Sep. 11, 2001 at a dinner celebrating the day's end of the first day of Ramadan at the WH.
0bama tasked NASA with a mission of "Muslim outreach."
0bama referred to his faith as "my Muslim faith" in an interview with George Stephanopolous. (video 0:12)
Barack Obama Mocks And Makes Fun Of The Bible (video 2:09)
Obama: " We are no longer a Christian nation . . . " (video 1:27)
As a newly elected Illinois State Senator Obama sponsored Bill SR0110 in the 90th General Assembly to declare November 1, 1997 to be Islamic Community Center Day. See the whole bill here.
"Barack Obama adviser says Sharia Law is misunderstood" The Telegraph (UK) December 29, 2010

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