Sunday, February 9, 2025
More

    Latest Posts

    Free my brother – Kanye West begs Trump to release Diddy

    Controversial American rapper Kanye West has publicly appealed to US President Donald Trump to release imprisoned music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. Kanye, who has been...

    I support probe of my father’s tenure – El-Rufai’s son

    Mohammed El-Rufai, eldest son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he supports the probe of his father’s administration by...

    Mercy Chinwo close to final resolution with EezeeTee – Singer’s lawyer announces

    Pelumi Olajengbesi, the lawyer for Nigerian gospel singer Mercy Chinwo, has hinted that his client and her former record label boss, EezeeTee, have started...

    Pheelz earns his first gold certification in the United States

    Nigerian music star Pheelz has achieved a career milestone as his 2022 hit single 'Finesse' featuring BNXN received a Gold certification in the United...

    Obama’s Kenyan ‘granny’ dies at 99

    Sarah Obama, the grandmother of former US President Barack Obama, has died aged 99 in western Kenya, her daughter told AFP Monday.

    “It is true she has gone to be with the Lord,” said an emotional Marsat Onyango, her daughter, “she passed on this morning.”

    Sarah Obama, popularly known as Mama Sarah, had been admitted to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu.

    Once a simple country woman, Sarah Obama was for a long time best known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school.

    But she rose to world fame with the 2008 election of her step-grandson Barack as the first black US president.

    Already a national celebrity after the former Illinois senator Barack Obama visited Kenya in 2006, Sarah’s modest homestead became a tourist attraction with Obama’s November 2008 election triumph.

    Born in 1922 in a village on the shores of the glittering waters of Lake Victoria, Sarah was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, President Obama’s grandfather, a herbalist and a village elder who fought for the British in Burma, now called Myanmar.

    Onyango Obama, who died in 1975, is said to be the first man to swap goatskin clothing for trousers in his village. He returned from the war in Burma with a gramophone and a picture of a white woman he claimed to have married.

    Although not a blood relation, President Obama often refered to Sarah as his grandmother, calling her “granny”.

    On his trip back to Kenya as US president, he met with her among other family members in Nairobi.

    After leaving office, he traveled to her home in the village of Kogelo in 2018, joking he had been unable to do so in 2015 as his jet was too big to land in Kisumu.

    Obama is linked to his Kenyan family via his father Barack senior, a pipe-smoking economist who Obama has admitted he “never truly” knew.

    He met Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, in Hawaii. But he walked out when Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.

    Obama senior had worked in the government of Jomo Kenyatta, who led Kenya at independence from Britain until his death 14 years later in 1978.

    The two men did not get on well, with Kenyatta — the father of Kenya’s current president Uhuru Kenyatta — sacking Obama senior, and blackballing him for further government jobs, an ostracisation that would help fuel alcoholism.

    (AFP)

    Latest Posts

    Free my brother – Kanye West begs Trump to release Diddy

    Controversial American rapper Kanye West has publicly appealed to US President Donald Trump to release imprisoned music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. Kanye, who has been...

    I support probe of my father’s tenure – El-Rufai’s son

    Mohammed El-Rufai, eldest son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has said he supports the probe of his father’s administration by...

    Mercy Chinwo close to final resolution with EezeeTee – Singer’s lawyer announces

    Pelumi Olajengbesi, the lawyer for Nigerian gospel singer Mercy Chinwo, has hinted that his client and her former record label boss, EezeeTee, have started...

    Pheelz earns his first gold certification in the United States

    Nigerian music star Pheelz has achieved a career milestone as his 2022 hit single 'Finesse' featuring BNXN received a Gold certification in the United...

    Don't Miss

    NBA urges Imo High Court shutdown over safety concerns

    Lawyers in Owerri, Imo State, have called for a one-week suspension of activities at the Justice Oputa High Court due to safety concerns. The Chairman...

    Obi tackles Akande, says #EndSARS narrative, attempt to rewrite history

    The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has slammed the former governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, over his allegation that the 2020...

    ‘We are all family’ – Tee Billz makes U-turn, apologises to Toke Makinwa

    Nigerian talent manager, A&R and music executive, Tunji Balogun, best known as Tee Billz, has publicly apologised to media personality and influencer, Toke Makinwa. Tee...

    APC, PDP differ over Amaechi’s power-drunk politicians comment

    Political parties in the country have expressed divergent opinions on the recent comments of former Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi that Nigerian politicians are...

    2baba maintains divorce stand, debunks IG account hack

    Veteran Nigerian singer 2baba has come out to refute the post shared on his Instagram account, which stated that his page was hacked. On the...

    Stay in touch

    To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.