The village is part of the bigger Alego clan of the Luo community (tribe), the third largest in Kenya, which has had enormous political influence in the country’s history over the last 45 years.
It was here that the American Senator’s father, the late Barack Hussein Obama was born in 1936 as the first born son to Mama Sarah and Hussein Onyango Obama. The senator’s grandmother Sarah gave birth to eight children six of whom are alive. The senator’s three uncles, Said Hussein Obama, Yusuf Okoth Obama and Obama Onyango, are all alive. Yusuf, who joined his late brother Barack Obama Snr in the US to pursue studies in the 1960s, is now also an American citizen.
Said Hussein and Obama Onyango, live and work in Kenya, while their three sisters are happily married in Kenya.
“Apart from Barack Obama in America, I have several other grand children who visit me regularly. I feel very proud of them and especially of Barack who comes all the way from the US to visit me as he did last August,” said Mama Sarah in an interview.
(snip)
Mama Sarah says he kept in close touch with his family in America and their family, back in Kenya knew about their American relative who kept sending them pictures of the boy as he grew up.
Obama Snr’s remains are interred next to those of his father Hussein Onyango Obama at their Alego Kogelo home. On his grave are the inscriptions:
Barack Hussein Obama: Born 1936, died 1982.
On the grave of his father are the inscriptions:
Jaduong (Elder) Hussein Onyango Obama:
Born 1870; died on 29th November 1975
May his soul rest in peace.
Before he went for studies in America, Obama senior had married his first wife Ruth Obama. Ruth lives at home in Alego Kogelo with Grandma Sarah with her three sons. Her only daughter Kezia Obama lives in England.
The senator’s step brothers are all married and with children and the family have kept in touch. A chance for reunion as was offered by Obama’s visit in August 2006 is celebrated. During my visit to the village, Ruth Obama was in England to visit her daughter Kezia. A visit to the family home reveals a closely knit family that is regularly in touch despite living in different continents.
Obama is a widely used family name, which originated from one of their great grand fathers about two centuries ago. A number of people were named after the great grand father and the name lives on, passed from one generation to another as is common in the Luo tradition.
According to Mama Sarah who seems to know the family history very well, Senator Obama was named after his father. She says it was a mutual agreement between Obama senior and the senator’s American mother to name him after the father.
“My husband was born Lucas Onyango Obama in Kendu Bay near the shore of Lake Victoria in the present Rachuonyo District,” Mama Sarah explains, “ but he became Hussein Onyango Obama when he converted to Islam in Dare salaam, Tanzania where he worked as a young man.”
She says while her husband converted to Islam in his youth, largely to conform to his environment in Dare salaam, the family has had a liberal approach to matters of religion. “Many of my children and grand children are Christians and that is why I feel offended when I hear of attempts by those opposed to my grandson(Senator Obama) vying for the American presidency attempting to use Islam against him” says Mama Sarah Obama.
During the interview, Mama Sarah, 75, expressed anger at what she felt were attempts by Senator Obama’s critics, including sections of the American media, to cast aspersions on her grandson’s background.
She says the family is getting sensitive abou the way the media have been writing about her grandson and the family and she refuses to answer questions about her family and grandchildren saying they have explained this repeatedly but people still don’t understand.
“Many people including the media have been coming here to interview us but many are just looking for negative things to ruin my grandson’s reputation and bring him down politically,” she told this writer in an interview. “We have decided as a family that we shall no longer grant interviews to the press to avoid distortions but we welcome those who want to visit us or wish to confirm that indeed the senators come from a stable family background here in Kenya.”
They have decided as a family to limit media interviews and the senator’s uncle, Said Hussein Obama who lives in Kisumu, is now the person to talk to and not the grand mother.
He was not at home when African Interest team visited Alego Kogelo and efforts to trace him in Kisumu were fruitless.
Mama Sarah is now suspicious of visitors to the home although she is still welcoming in the tradition of the village and community. She parried a number of questions about her family saying it had all been in the media and that there was no more to say unless I was part of her grandson’s opponents who wanted to manufacture false stories to bring him down now that he was going for the big office.
The elder lady, born in 1922, is stout in build and still strong enough to do her household chores including doing farm work. She says since Obama’s last visit in August 2006, they have been overwhelmed by visitors to their Alego Kogelo Village.
The visitors have been both locals and foreigners, just anxious to set their eyes on this village which has produced one of the greatest African sons of his time who now want to be at the helm of the most powerful country’s affairs.
Mama Sarah lives in a modest but neat four-room brick house set in an undulating leafy surrounding overlooking a valley. The compound is neat, with her son’s houses on either side of her house according to Luo traditions. Just outside her fence is the senator’s step mother Ruth Obama’s home (Barack Obama snr’s home) built after his death. It is here that Ruth Obama lives with her sons, the senator’s step brothers.
Obama attended his father’s funeral in Alego Kogelo in 1982 and made the first contact with his ancestral home and relatives. They had only been seeing him in pictures which he and his mother kept sending from America.
On the wall of his grandmother’s sitting room hang many group pictures of the senator and relatives when he came to attend his father’s funeral.
It was here that the American Senator’s father, the late Barack Hussein Obama was born in 1936 as the first born son to Mama Sarah and Hussein Onyango Obama.
WHAT HAPPENED TO AKUMU, THE MOTHER OF SENIOR, WHO IS PICTURED ON THE FRONT OF ‘DREAMS’ WITH LITTLE SENIOR ON HER LAP? THE WOMAN WHO ‘LEFT HER HUSBAND AND WENT TO TANZANIA’?
The senator’s grandmother Sarah gave birth to eight children six of whom are alive. The senator’s three uncles, Said Hussein Obama, Yusuf Okoth Obama and Obama Onyango, are all alive. Yusuf, who joined his late brother Barack Obama Snr in the US to pursue studies in the 1960s, is now also an American citizen.
SAID HUSSEIN OBAMA IS THE SON OF SARAH WHO KEEPS HIS EYE ON HER, SHE IS RARELY SEEN WITHOUT HIM BY HER SIDE. HE’S HER WATCHDOG, TO MAKE SURE SHE DOESN’T MAKE ANY SLIP-UPS, LIKE SAYING TO AUMA, ‘NONE OF YOU ARE HIS CHILDREN’
YUSUF, THE ARABIC NAME FOR JOSEPH, WENT TO SCHOOL WITH OBAMA SENIOR. HE LEFT MASENO SCHOOL ‘FOR UNEXPLAINED REASONS’ IN 1951. YUSUF IS THEREFOR TWO YEARS OLDER THAN OBAMA SENIOR. (UNLESS SARAH GAVE BIRTH TO TWO YUSUF.)
Said Hussein and Obama Onyango, live and work in Kenya, while their three sisters are happily married in Kenya.
OBAMA ONYNAGO IS THE ‘UNCLE OMAR’ FROM ‘DREAMS’ WHO WENT AWAY AND GOT ‘LOST’ - LAST HEARD OF, LIVING IN BOSTON.
“Apart from Barack Obama in America, I have several other grand children who visit me regularly. I feel very proud of them and especially of Barack who comes all the way from the US to visit me as he did last August,” said Mama Sarah in an interview.
(snip)
Mama Sarah says he kept in close touch with his family in America and their family, back in Kenya knew about their American relative who kept sending them pictures of the boy as he grew up.
Obama Snr’s remains are interred next to those of his father Hussein Onyango Obama at their Alego Kogelo home. On his grave are the inscriptions:
Barack Hussein Obama: Born 1936, died 1982.
On the grave of his father are the inscriptions:
Jaduong (Elder) Hussein Onyango Obama:
Born 1870; died on 29th November 1975
May his soul rest in peace.
Before he went for studies in America, Obama senior had married his first wife Ruth Obama. Ruth lives at home in Alego Kogelo with Grandma Sarah with her three sons. Her only daughter Kezia Obama lives in England.
WELL, THAT GOT RID OF THE LIE THAT KEZIA AND OBAMA SENIOR HAD CHILDREN, NOW THEY ALL BELONG TO RUTH!
The senator’s step brothers are all married and with children and the family have kept in touch. A chance for reunion as was offered by Obama’s visit in August 2006 is celebrated. During my visit to the village, Ruth Obama was in England to visit her daughter Kezia. A visit to the family home reveals a closely knit family that is regularly in touch despite living in different continents.
WON’T RUTH BE DELIGHTED TO READ THAT KEZIA IS NOW HER DAUGHTER? THESE PEOPLE ARE INSANE!
Obama is a widely used family name, which originated from one of their great grand fathers about two centuries ago. A number of people were named after the great grand father and the name lives on, passed from one generation to another as is common in the Luo tradition.
According to Mama Sarah who seems to know the family history very well, Senator Obama was named after his father. She says it was a mutual agreement between Obama senior and the senator’s American mother to name him after the father.
WELL, NOW THAT WE HAVE DISPENSED WITH THE SON THAT KEZIA WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE HAD WITH OBAMA SENIOR BEFORE HE WENT TO THE US...(what year was that?) THE FACT THAT THE ‘SON’ OBAMA WAS NAMED OBAMA TWO ISN’T A PROBLEM ANY MORE...
“My husband was born Lucas Onyango Obama in Kendu Bay near the shore of Lake Victoria in the present Rachuonyo District,” Mama Sarah explains, “ but he became Hussein Onyango Obama when he converted to Islam in Dare salaam, Tanzania where he worked as a young man.”
HE DROPPED HIS CHRISTIAN NAME. JUST AS HIS FIRST BORN SON JOSEPH DROPPED HIS CHRISTIAN NAME.
She says while her husband converted to Islam in his youth, largely to conform to his environment in Dare salaam, the family has had a liberal approach to matters of religion. “Many of my children and grand children are Christians and that is why I feel offended when I hear of attempts by those opposed to my grandson(Senator Obama) vying for the American presidency attempting to use Islam against him” says Mama Sarah Obama.
THAT’S WHY SHE MADE THE HAJJ?
During the interview, Mama Sarah, 75, expressed anger at what she felt were attempts by Senator Obama’s critics, including sections of the American media, to cast aspersions on her grandson’s background.
I CAN’T BRING MYSELF TO MAKE A COMMENT...
She says the family is getting sensitive abou the way the media have been writing about her grandson and the family and she refuses to answer questions about her family and grandchildren saying they have explained this repeatedly but people still don’t understand.
AND STILL DON’T.
“Many people including the media have been coming here to interview us but many are just looking for negative things to ruin my grandson’s reputation and bring him down politically,” she told this writer in an interview. “We have decided as a family that we shall no longer grant interviews to the press to avoid distortions but we welcome those who want to visit us or wish to confirm that indeed the senators come from a stable family background here in Kenya.”
SOUNDS LIKE THEY HIRED AN AGENT.
They have decided as a family to limit media interviews and the senator’s uncle, Said Hussein Obama who lives in Kisumu, is now the person to talk to and not the grand mother.
YEAH. HE’S HER PERMANENT SHADOW.
He was not at home when African Interest team visited Alego Kogelo and efforts to trace him in Kisumu were fruitless.
SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HE’S NOT AROUND? SHE LOSES IT.
Mama Sarah is now suspicious of visitors to the home although she is still welcoming in the tradition of the village and community. She parried a number of questions about her family saying it had all been in the media and that there was no more to say unless I was part of her grandson’s opponents who wanted to manufacture false stories to bring him down now that he was going for the big office.
IT’S A CONSPIRACY!
The elder lady, born in 1922, is stout in build and still strong enough to do her household chores including doing farm work. She says since Obama’s last visit in August 2006, they have been overwhelmed by visitors to their Alego Kogelo Village.
The visitors have been both locals and foreigners, just anxious to set their eyes on this village which has produced one of the greatest African sons of his time who now want to be at the helm of the most powerful country’s affairs.
NOT REALLY, SOME OF THE VISITORS WOULD SIMPLY LIKE TO KNOW THE TRUTH, BUT IT’S NOT GOING TO COME FROM THE VILLAGE...
Mama Sarah lives in a modest but neat four-room brick house set in an undulating leafy surrounding overlooking a valley. The compound is neat, with her son’s houses on either side of her house according to Luo traditions. Just outside her fence is the senator’s step mother Ruth Obama’s home (Barack Obama snr’s home) built after his death. It is here that Ruth Obama lives with her sons, the senator’s step brothers.
WRITTEN FOR THE CONSUMPTION OF LUO MUSLIMS NO DOUBT. MRS NDESANJO REMARRIED, LIVES IN NAIROBI, RUNS A KINGERGARTEN -
Obama attended his father’s funeral in Alego Kogelo in 1982 and made the first contact with his ancestral home and relatives. They had only been seeing him in pictures which he and his mother kept sending from America.
THERE YOU GO! A LITTLE NUGGET OF TRUTH AMONGST THE BS. AS SOON AS THE OLD MAN DIED, HE WENT TO KENYA. WHY? AND WHY WAS HE UNABLE TO CLAIM ANYTHING FROM THE OLD MAN’S MEAGRE ESTATE?
BECAUSE ONLY MARK HAD THE DOCUMENTATON TO SHOW HE WAS THE BIOLOGICAL/LEGAL SON OF SENIOR.
On the wall of his grandmother’s sitting room hang many group pictures of the senator and relatives when he came to attend his father’s funeral.
HE DIDN’T COME TO ATTEND THE FUNERAL. THERE ARE SEVERAL ARTICLES FROM AFRICA THAT SHOW HE CAME SOME MONTHS AFTER THE DEATH, IN 1983.
AND PS. SEE THAT IMAGE ABOVE OF MARK - THAT IS THE ONLY SON OBAMA SENIOR HAS WHO IS LIVING.