– Village power –
Obama’s last visit to Kenya, as a US Senator in 2006, was a circus; his election victories were loudly cheered in Kenya, and his visit this weekend promises to be a madhouse of jingoistic celebrations and reflected glory as Kenyans wilfully forget that Obama isn’t actually Kenyan.
Owuor, the souvenir t-shirt seller, said proudly that, “The story of Obama is when he was young he was born in Siaya,” the Kenyan county in which Kogelo lies — half a world away from Hawaii, where Obama was actually born.
In the village itself, Manasseh Oyucho, headmaster of the Senator Obama Kogelo Primary School, excitedly listed Obama’s heritage as “a Kenyan, a Luo, a Kogelo!” as if he were born in the tiny village of 3,000 people on a lush plateau overlooking the rolling farm-covered hills.
Like everyone else in Kogelo, the 56-year old teacher thanks Obama for recent changes.
“When he became president that’s when we got the tarmac road and good water for drinking. This school got two classrooms, an office and a store. We got a police station. These things are coming because of him!” said Oyucho.
Grid electricity reached Kogelo for the first time hours after Obama won the 2008 presidential election. A paved road and piped water followed soon after as the Kenyan government suddenly paid attention to the neglected village.
“President Obama has changed this village,” said Nicholas Rajula, owner of the Kogelo Village Resort, an expanding hotel built to accommodate visitors to Obamaland, as Kogelo is sometimes known.
“In our culture we say everybody who comes to see (the president’s step-grandmother) Mama Sarah are Barack Obama’s visitors, so it is my duty as a village mate, as a cousin, to take care of his guests while he is away,” said the 55-year old businessman.
“Of course they are paying, they are not staying for free,” he added quickly.
About The Author
