Dump mood in Kogelo over Obama’s failure to visit grandmother

Residents of Nyang’oma Kogelo village in Siaya County are a disappointed lot after the U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec announced that President Barrack Obama will not be visiting the area during his Kenya tour.

“Unfortunately President Obama will not be able to visit Kogelo. He has very limited time in Kenya and that will make it difficult to make the trip,” Godec said when he was hosted on KTN’s Jeff Koinange Live on Thursday.

Before it became clear that Obama would not set foot on his father’s home soil, Kogelo residents engaged in different activities to prepare for the grand arrival of the world’s most powerful person.

The roads leading to Kwa Mama Sarah Obama had been well-maintained with schools around the region undergoing complete facelifts.

Siaya County Government was reported to have set aside Ksh 52 million for decoration of different spots within the county.

Obama’s grandmother, Mama Sarah Obama, was fully equipped with her adept cooking skills to prepare ugali and ‘Athola’ (roast meat) for her grandson.

However, the most heart-broken group is that of the elderly population in Kogelo who wanted to at least see Obama.

One George Ochome said; “We are very disappointed to hear Obama won’t be visiting us. We had made plenty of preparation to welcome him home.”

“We were even making arrangements of meeting up with him, at least for a mug of porridge. On bigger arrangements, we had planned to slaughter herds of cattle and goats to welcome him home,” he said.

Mr Ochome went ahead to recollect with nostalgia how in 2006 Obama visited Kogelo village, and even sat down with them at Senator Obama Primary School where they shared good talk.

Dholuo song for Obama

“When he visited Kogelo in 2006 as a Senator, everybody was happy; we even took him to Kogelo Primary where his father studied. He also took porridge with us at Mama Sarah’s home,” added Ochome.

George went ahead to say that their dreams of seeing Obama, at least when they are still alive have faded saying raising bus fare to Nairobi is almost impossible as the journey charges are too high.

“It is difficult to raise money to travel all the way to Nairobi to see him. We had used a lot of finances to prepare for his homecoming here in Kogelo, thus we are left with very little.”

Primary School pupils were not any happier, as they had packaged songs in native Dholuo language to present to the American President.

Hellen Atieno, a teacher at Senator Obama Kogelo Primary School, said they started preparing song packages for Barrack Obama as soon as they heard of his planned visit to Kenya.

“We composed songs for Obama in Dholuo because his real roots are traced back to Kogelo, where the indigenous language is Dholuo.”

Hellen, however, has not yet lost hope in meeting Barrack Obama and is still positive he will land in Kogelo.

“We have heard he won’t visit Kogelo; but I am optimistic and believe he would come even for an hour. I will really appreciate,” said Hellen.

As for now, gloom, dullness and despair is the general mood of the people in Kogelo village, Siaya County.

President Obama will be in the country next week for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit set for July 24^th to 26^th in Nairobi.