A brass band member
awaits the arrival of President and Mrs.
Obama in Dar Es
Salaam, Tanzania, June 1.
Mama Sarah Explains Why Obama 'Snubbed' Kenya (Daily News, Tanzania)
"'Why should I be upset by his bypass of Kenya? ... This is
a state visit to Africa, and he goes only where he has been scheduled to go.'
Offering her thoughts as to why Kenya was excluded, Mama Sarah said: 'My son is
a person with a big heart. He loves people and will not stand by and watch
others suffering injustice or being denied their rights.' She said Obama was
unhappy with Kenya's political quarreling. "
Kogelo,
Kisumu: While U.S. President Barack Obama’s snub of Kenya in his current visit
to Africa rankles many Kenyans, his step grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Obama of
Kogelo in the west of the country, is not disappointed. According to Mama
Sarah, the African states Obama is visiting are on the itinerary his government
charted for him.
“Why
should I be upset by his bypass of Kenya?” Mrs. Sarah Obama asks. “This is a
state visit to Africa, and he goes only where he has been scheduled to go.
Kenya is not officially on that route.”
Mrs.
Sarah Obama, affectionately referred to by Kenyans as Mama Sarah, told the Daily News that she sees nothing wrong
with her step-grandson’s flyover of Kenya, since he is working and doing just
what he is officially supposed to be doing. [Sarah Obama is the third wife of Obama's paternal grandfather.]
Mama Sarah was speaking on June 25 at
her Kogelo home. President Obama's tour of Africa, to the nations of Senegal,
South Africa and Tanzania, began the next day. He arrives in Tanzania today.
Offering
her thoughts as to why Kenya was excluded, she said: “My son is a person with a
big heart. He loves people and will not stand by and watch others suffering
injustice or being denied their rights.” She said Obama was unhappy with
Kenya's political quarreling.
She
wouldn't directly address whether Obama avoided Kenya because of the
International Criminal Court indictment of the nation's current leaders.
President Uhuru Kenyata and Deputy President William Ruto have been charged
with crimes against humanity. The pair is suspected of helping plan and fund
post-election violence in 2007-08. More than 1,000 people died and 600,000 were
evicted from their homes.
Instead,
Mama Sarah just said: “That may also be a reason.” Many Kenyans, however, are
unhappy with the snub by the president of a superpower they have always
considered a great friend.
They
say the evasion is connected to the ICC indictment by The Hague. Frederick
Adera, an ATM guard in Nairobi, says that if former Prime Minister Raila had
won last march, President Obama would have visited.
Makau
Mutua, a columnist of repute for Kenya’s Sunday
Nation, notes that Mr. Obama seems viscerally and intellectually revolted
by leaders who use any means to capture and retain power. Mutua says: “My
crystal ball tells me President Obama won’t visit Kenya as long as Misters
Kenyatta and Ruto are in charge.”
Mutua
went further, to say that at this stage, Obama has vowed never to set foot in
Kenya as long as the state is overseen by men of questionable character and
integrity.
According
to Mama Sarah, President Obama is much like his father, Obama senior, who was a
stickler for honesty and fairness. “When his father was studying at Maseno
Secondary School, he prevented a teacher from punishing a fellow student for an
infraction he didn't commit,” she explained. Instead, Obama senior exposes the
culprit who laying low.
It
has also been reported that Obama’s snub of Kenya is a strategic move. He seeks
to avoid a backlash at home, where due to the ICC indictments, some Congress
people are unreceptive to open diplomatic engagement with Nairobi. The stance
of U.S. lawmakers just underscores what Mama Sarah had to say - that Obama is
merely following plans laid out by the State Department.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
President Obama greets
Tanzanians during the official arrival
ceremony in Dar Es
Salaam.
“People
of America accepted my son because of his generosity. He loves people and will
not involved himself with those whose integrity he questions. In that, he is so
much like his father, a typical Luo man who was tall and
stood upright.”
The
grand lady added that when Obama visited while he was still a senator, he
entered the compound and shouted a greeting in their mother tongue Dholuo,
saying: “Oyawore uru! Ungima? (good
morning to you all! How are you?) Mama Sarah told us that President Obama was
learning the very difficult Luo language. “He has someone teaching him and
means to learn it well. He is determined to learn the ways of his people,” she
said.
