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The government has declared Nyang’oma Kogelo, the village where United States President Barack Obama traces his roots, a protected area.

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* Kenya Archives records Obama history

In a gazette notice published on Friday, Heritage minister William ole Ntimama also declared the Vigango and Tuluap-Sigis, in the Coast and Rift Valley provinces respectively, protected areas.

The Vigango is a historical site used by the Giriama people as a funeral post while Tuluap-Sigis is a cultural site for the Kipsigis people in Kipkelion District.

Ref: Nation newspaper March 2009

 

 

Obama: Memories of My Father's Land Kenya, Kisumu Kogelo Siaya

 

Kenya is a country in Africa very popular with it's wild life not to mention the great wildebeest immigration at the masai mara; great wonder of the world. God has blessed Kenya with great wild life and people call it the REAL AFRICA. Kenya is rich with History from it's colonial era fight for independence from the British colonialist. All the 42 tribes united with a common cause FREEDOM many lost their lives as they fought to gain independence.Gaining it independence in 1963 having Mzee Jomo Kenyatta as it founding President. Kenya has developed into a strong united nation. Having great long distance athletes from Kenya with the likes of (Kipchoge Keino, Paul Tergat) and also great quality known world wide coffee Kenya continues to Shine bright by God's grace. Recently a son of the land Barack Obama traveled to Kenya as a senator going back to his roots Kenya, Kisumu, Kogelo; where his Kenyan father was born and raised and later married. Barack Obama knowing where he came from remembering his roots the other half of his heritage; he continued to forge his identity. Venturing into the Kenyan Culture one of the things that Mr. Barack Obama misses is.. a quiet snack of chai (tea) and samosas; missed the days he would walk into the Green Corner Restaurant and enjoy chai and samosas without attracting attention.It was unbelievable when the people of kisumu,Kogelo Siaya heard that they son won the US election becoming President elect of America, the village of his father's birth was celebrating their most famous son Barack Obama. Bull, goats and sheep were slaughtered to celebrate the victory of the man who had brought American politics into virtually every home. The Country Kenya declared a public Holiday for him.

 

President Barack Obama's past visits to Kenya

were in complete contrast to that if two years

ago. When he came to Kenya for the first time,

he passed as any other visitor..mo chauffer drive,

no state ecurity, no battery of journalist with attendant photographers clicking away, no important politicians to accompany him. Lost luggage, rude hotel staff and bumpy rides along rural roads were just some of the problems he acceding zeal to find 'Old man', as he refers to his father in his zeal to find his father in his best selling book "Dream from My Father'' At the Jomo Kenyatta international airport however he did find it a relief to be among his father's people. No longer was anyone telling him to spell his name, or mangling his pronounciation. One British Airways official had actually known his father and offered his condolences for his death. He wrote in his Dreams from My father: "I felt the comfort, the firmness of identity that a name might provide how it could carry the history of other people's memories, so that they might nod knowingly, saying that you are the son of so and so"

 

He continued: "My name Belonged and so i Belonged, drawn in the Web of relationships, alliances and grudges i had yet to understand"But because he belonged, he wastreated as though he did not have the right to be where his fellow Americans were. Obama had gone for lunch with his half sister Dr. Auma Obama at a leading Nairobi restaurant he thought theservice was taking so long because the waiters had not seen them.He then came to realize that the delay was due to their skin color. He writes that a white American family who arrived much later than they had were accorded the services of two waiters "both of them smiling from ear to ear". Mean while, two other waiters were standing by the Kitchen not making any attempt to serve them. Eventually an older man with sleepy eyes relented and brought us two menus. His manner was resentful though after several minutes he showed no signs of coming back".

 

The Episode left Obama wondering whether the waiters had realized that the time for the white rule had come to an end. Perhaps it was aprophecy to the man who would become a household name in the world politics years laters. Earlier one of his bags had been sent to Johannesburg by mistake (In South Africa). Two days later, he was to come face to face with human face of poor service and the attempt with which ordinary people are treated.

 

Two women at an airline were talking about a new nightclub that had opened in town. When he told them that he was looking for his luggage, he was told to come back at midnight if he wished. He ten sought help from the ariline's head office in the town centre, where he writes that the receptionist had "withdrawn behind a stony mask, a where neither pleading nor bluster could reach".

To his surprise, a man who says is related to him through a sequence he could not follow came in; he happened to know the manage; the manager's intervention caused the bag which was reportedly in South Africa, to be dropped in town, leaving him to winder why blacks look down to black.

 

After a brief stay in Nairobi, he took the long-awaited train ride to kisumu from where he was to connect by bus to Nyangoma Kogelo village of the

outskirts of Siaya town.But there

were no buses, so he had to make

the journey in " a sad-looking vehicle

with balding, cracked tires". It was

full, but as usual there was no room

for one more. Throughout difficulty and embarassing situations said he remained philosophical about whatever he was going through.When he visited his other relatives in Endue Bay in Kobama village, he slept on a mat in a grass-thatched mud-walled house.

 

But he writes that the Kenyan trip opened eyes and gave him the answers he had been looking for all along. Two years ago, the story was different. Not only had the paths been opened up to easy passage of vehicles, but the home and the entire village was put under a 24 hour surveillance by the US marines, Secret Service agents and Kenya police. His 2006 visit had all the hallmarks of an homecoming ceremony for a hero. The skinny man with funny name, as he once described himself, has had a complete metamorphosis at home and abroad. Since his election of 2004 as one the two senators from Iii , in Kenya his name was has adorned everything from beer to matatus (public van transport) to schools. According to his memoir, the journey to find the father he never really knew began in New york and ended under a mango tree where his grand mother Sarah braided his sister Auma's Hair.. His mother and her parents had told him their stories, but he needed to know the other side as well. On that insist he learned much more about the country of his father which helped to answer the questions that had been troubling him as an African-American .

 

President Barak Obama learnt from his early age the importance of tribes in Kenya.And like most Kenyans, he was not afraid to associate himself with his father Luo tribe. According to his memoir, Barack Obama once told a friend that his grandfather, who had worked as a cook, was actually a tribal king and that his father was a prince poised to take over the kingdom after the death of his grandfather.

And he went on to say that in the event

of his father's death - he died in 1982

but not before once visiting his son in Hawaii - he would become a prince if

he chose to. We Celebrate God's Blessings and Kenyans are honored

on having this relation with Barack Obama and much more the African Americans having received a gift from God Almighty to all color to all mankind; for all things a work together for good to those who love Him always yes we can.