On 29th Monday of March 2021, Kenyans were thrown into mourning after shocking news of late Mama Sarah Onyango Obama emerged.
Mama Sarah Obama died aged 99 years old after being unwell for a week .
According to the family spokesperson, Late Mama Sarah died in a Kisumu health facility while receiving treatment, the family denied that she did not succumb to COVID-19 disease.
President Uhuru Kenyatta led the rest of Kenyans in mourning the death of Obama’s matriarch
“The passing away of Mama Sarah is a big blow to our nation??. We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman. A matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values,” ~President Uhuru Kenyatta
- Sarah Obama was born in 1922 in a village on Lake Victoria, Kogelo . She was a Muslim and part of Kenya’s Luo ethnic group.
- She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, President Obama’s paternal grandfather.
- Her husband, who died in 1975, fought for the British in Burma, now called Myanmar, and is reported to be the first man in his village to swap goatskin clothing for trousers.
- Mrs Obama defended her grandson during his 2008 presidential campaign, when he was said to be Muslim and not born in the US.
- Her home became a tourist attraction when he was elected as the first black US president.
- Sarah Obama was also well known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school in Kenya
- She also ran a foundation in Kenya to help educate orphans and girls
- Sarah only spoke Luo and only a few words of English, communicated with President Obama through an interpreter.
- On 19 November 2014, Sarah Obama received the Pioneer Award from the United Nations for the work of an education foundation that she headed, as a part of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day.
- She had four kids including Zeituni Onyango
