By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | September 13, 2009
(Photos By Boniface Mwangi for The Boston Globe)
President Obama鈥檚 relatives put up a sign showing his lineage in the village of Kobama
which means 鈥渓and of Obama,鈥欌€?where his great-grandfather is buried.
KOGELO, Kenya - After Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate in 2004, a delegation from the remote African village where his father was raised journeyed to Washington, seeking financial help. But Obama offered them advice, not money.
Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys.
鈥淭here are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,鈥欌€?said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.
Dreams alone seem to be sustaining those counting on an economic boom in this rural corner of western Kenya, near Lake Victoria, where the American president鈥檚 father - also named Barack Obama - grew up and where many of his relatives remain.
In Kogelo, the village where Barack Sr. was raised, there is no restaurant or post office to speak of. Two hours from the nearest city, it is not on most maps.
Still, the price of land here has skyrocketed because of rampant speculation about an Obama family museum that the Kenyan Ministry of Tour ism has promised to build. And there have been some modest, but tangible, signs of progress that seem tied to the village鈥檚 new notoriety. Within a week of Obama鈥檚 election victory last year, the government began to pave the main road to town. It also brought in an electricity and water lines to Obama鈥檚 step-grandmother鈥檚 compound.
Some relatives have also set up foundations, trying to raise money for development projects using the Obama name. And strangers are suddenly a common sight in the market, attracted by safari companies that advertise heritage tours about the first African-American US president. A tourist hotel is planned.
But what is missing is a direct infusion of cash from Obama or the US government, say local residents and members of the extended Obama family, some of whom say they have relayed funding requests through e-mails and letters to Washington. That expectation might come as a surprise in the United States, where such gifts are not an obligation and Obama is not considered a particularly wealthy man. But in Kenya, where politicians are often judged by how much financial help they funnel to family and tribe, the lack of cash donations from the president has caused some consternation.
Rajula, the Kogelo businessman who funded the delegation鈥檚 trip to Washington in 2005, said Obama encouraged the group - which included his own uncle - to form self-help organizations and apply for funding through official channels, such as USAID.
鈥淭here is no money that comes from his pocket,鈥欌€?Rajula said.
A White House official said: 鈥淭he president鈥檚 policy of pointing aid requests to official channels is consistent with his message of good governance鈥欌€?in Africa.
USAID press officer Harry Edwards said the agency gives no special consideration to Obama鈥檚 family members or organizations hailing from his family鈥檚 home area.
Still, relatives in Kenya believe that Obama鈥檚 presidency will bring development, one way or another, so much so that two villages are competing to claim his ancestral roots: Kogelo, the place his father grew up and is buried, and Kobama, a village about 100 miles away where the president鈥檚 great-grandfather settled and where the majority of his estimated three hundred relatives remain. In Kobama, which literally means 鈥渓and of Obama,鈥欌€?family members have fixed up his great-grandfather鈥檚 grave, erected a signpost outlining his lineage, and gladly receive a steady stream of curious visitors. Now, they too, are angling to put up a museum near the mud house where President Obama slept when he visited as a young man.
Charles Oluoch, a second cousin of the president who chairs a new family foundation seeking development funds, said Obama鈥檚 Harvard-educated father helped the boys of Kobama with jobs and school fees. 鈥淣ow we expect the president to take over,鈥欌€?he said.
But he added that he understands Obama has higher priorities.
鈥淭his man is USA material and he has to fulfill all his campaign promises,鈥欌€?he said.
鈥淗e should feed his family first - the USA people.鈥欌€?br>
Obama was raised by his Kansas-born mother, and only met his Kenyan father once. But he tracked down a sprawling family in Kenya after his father鈥檚 1982 death, while researching his autobiography, Dreams from my Father.
In the book, Obama grappled with the idea of Western guilt, questioning how much he could help the huge extended family he was meeting for the first time.
鈥淣ow I had responsibilities,鈥欌€?Obama wrote in 1995.
鈥淏ut what did that mean exactlDoes President Obama practice what he preaches?
no
I say both of y'all are fools and racist. Cowboy....racist neocons don't like you either. You look like a Mexican. These people don't give a f)(k about you. Randa, your question was way too longer and boring.
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Does President Obama practice what he preaches?If Obama did funnel money to his family, people would be outraged at the favoritism. If he doesn't, people are outraged at his callousness. Thus is the state of partisan politics today.
He's the President not a preacher!Does President Obama practice what he preaches?
well...we didnt elect him 2 b a preacher/pastor/pope...we just wanted him to be president...
I think he tries too. The only perfect person on earth was Jesus. Obama, McCain, Palin etc. We all have flaws and aren't perfect. %26lt;3
I don't know. Do you? Does anyone on YA know that????
idk but hes a BABY KILLER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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