{"id":2224,"date":"2021-10-04T19:18:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T19:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2224"},"modified":"2021-10-04T19:18:16","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T19:18:16","slug":"obamas-ancestral-kenyan-village-fades-into-oblivion-after-his-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/?p=2224","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Ancestral Kenyan Village Fades Into Oblivion After His Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

SIAYA, Kenya \u2014 The 18-mile-long tarmac road cutting through Nyangoma-Kogelo village, 250 miles northwest of Kenya\u2019s capital, Nairobi, is no longer as busy as when\u00a0Barack Hussein Obama Junior<\/a>\u00a0was the President of the United States of America from 2008 to 2017.<\/p>\n

Beginning November 2004, when he first won the\u00a0United States Senate seat<\/a>, hundreds of local and foreign visitors streamed to the little village, his father\u2019s birthplace, Barack Hussein Obama Senior.<\/p>\n

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Obama visited Nyangoma-Kogelo in August 2006, as rumors mounted that he would seek the Democratic Party\u2019s ticket for the 2008 presidential polls, heightening global interest in the tiny village.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of high-end vehicles and tourist vans thronged the village to glimpse the ancestral roots of Obama, who would make history as the 44th United States president and the first African-American to hold the post.<\/p>\n

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For security reasons, the Kenyan police cordoned off the home of Mama Sarah Obama, the president\u2019s genial paternal step-grandmother, and put up a police station nearby.<\/p>\n

Local investors flocked to the village, hoping to cash in on the Obamamania sweeping throughout the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cObama\u2019s 2006 visit led to Kogelo\u2019s transformation, and things got even better when he became president,\u201d Johannes Oduor, a village resident, told Zenger news.<\/p>\n

However, five years after Obama left the White House, on Jan.20, 2017, to be replaced by\u00a0Donald J. Trump<\/a>\u2014who rose by persistently questioning\u00a0Obama\u2019s birthplace<\/a>\u2014the once bubbly, busy village is back to its old sleepy days.<\/p>\n

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The high-end vehicles and safari vans full of curious tourists are no more, replaced by the few personal cars and trucks ferrying farm produce to the local market.<\/p>\n

The now-deserted Nyangoma market, which acted as the epicenter of the famous village, shows how fortunes have dramatically changed after Obama\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

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Bernard Wendo, a 42-year-old taxi operator at Nyangoma market, said the hype, fame, and international focus on the village vanished after Obama left office, just at it had appeared 16 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, this village would be full of foreign dignitaries, government officials, students, tourists, journalists, and researchers, but that is no longer the case,\u201d he told Zenger news.<\/p>\n

A Kogelo resident, Humphrey Kosiele, said the community\u2019s gains during Obama\u2019s era are fast waning due to a lack of foreign visitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are back to where we were before the fame,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

For nine years, Kosiele ran a successful grocery store at Nyangoma market, but he shut down his business in 2017 due to what he describes as a \u201cdisappointing business environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Obama left office, things turned gloomy. Visitors vanished, and that is how most businesses died, including mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis Weloba, 35, a barber at Nyangoma center, is among the few whose businesses are still operational but are struggling.<\/p>\n

Weloba says he would make $10 a day tending to throngs of visitors during the Obama era but struggles to make $2 today.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife was good back then, but now we are surviving by the grace of God,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

The taxi business, which visitors relied on to make their way around the village, flourished during Obama\u2019s time. However, there are no longer taxi ranks in the town.<\/p>\n

Bicycles and motorcycle taxis, commonly known as bodabodas, are the main mode of transport for the majority of the locals.<\/p>\n

Andrew Jumba, 56, was forced to sell off his taxi after things went south.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to sell the car so that I could repay a loan which was overdue, and the bank was on my neck,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen tourists were coming, money was in plenty, and servicing my loan was no problem, but life became hard when they disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of his fellow taxi operators sold their vehicles or relocated to the nearby Siaya and Bondo towns.<\/p>\n

Bernard Omondi started a small shop selling agriculture and veterinary products to people who bought farms in and around the village, anticipating great fortunes.<\/p>\n

After Obama\u2019s retirement, he says, people\u2019s \u201cpurchasing power\u201d drastically reduced, forcing most businesses to shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers had a big market for their produce, but with hotels closing and people moving to nearby towns, many abandoned their farms,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

Investors in the hospitality sector who set up top facilities to cater to Nyangoma-Kogelo\u2019s high profile visitors also count their losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hotel industry was the most vibrant sector in this village,\u201d Nicholas Rajula, the owner of Kogelo Village Resort, told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

The resort attracted hundreds of visitors in its heyday, but it is a shell of its former self today, almost deserted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe relied on foreign visitors and tourists, and when they stopped coming, I had to look for other options. I have turned a section of the hotel into residential homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only operational facility\u2014albeit partially\u2014is the Barack Obama Hotel, owned by Malik Obama, Barack\u2019s half-brother, most remembered for backing Trump for the presidency in 2017.<\/p>\n

But with Obama\u2019s exit, Nyangoma-Kogelo has lost more than personal businesses. Hundreds of dirt poor folk who benefited from myriads of charities set up in Obama\u2019s honor gradually faded post his presidency.<\/p>\n

After Obama left the White House, many educational foundations scaled down their operations, as donors became scarce.<\/p>\n

Some students who entirely relied on education sponsorships from the\u00a0Mama Sarah Obama Foundation<\/u><\/a>\u00a0dropped out of school after it ceased operations.<\/p>\n

After Mama Sarah Obama\u2019s death in March 2021, a vocational training center she helped set up to train orphans in artisan courses closed down due to a lack of resources.<\/p>\n

Marsat Onyango, who oversees operations and administration at the foundation, said that a reduction in the number of donors affected the continuity of most projects initiated during Obama\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scholarship program was the most affected with diminished funding, forcing us to reduce the number of students receiving support,\u201d she told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we are working both locally and internationally to seek new and more partnerships to help us keep hope alive in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even in the village\u2019s changed circumstances, some positive work can still be seen.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s half-sister,\u00a0Auma Obama,<\/a>\u00a0is still engaged in education, personality development, and sustainable economic development projects through her foundation of the same name.<\/p>\n

He said plans are underway to kickstart the construction of Barack Obama University on a 90-acre piece of land earmarked in Kogelo.<\/p>\n

\u201cMobilization of funds is on, and it is our hope and prayer that this project will sail through,\u201d Jacob Wakoli, the infrastructure and projects coordinator at the foundation, told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Barack Obama University will be a landmark project for us. It will lift education standards in the community and also spur economic growth in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July 2018, Obama traveled to Kenya to promote the opening of a sports and training center sponsored by Auma\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n

However, community leaders worry that Obama\u2019s legacy to Nyangoma-Kogelo is wasting away and are considering taking over his family\u2019s projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that we can salvage the situation and save the projects from dying,\u201d Willys Ochiel, one of the community leaders, told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that Obama will one day come for another visit, and we do not want him to be disappointed by our laxity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hesbon Ochieng, 74, a community leader, says their tiny village would have struggled to access necessities were it not for the Obama connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community has running tap water, electricity, good schools, a health center, and good roads, all which came under his name,\u201d he told Zenger News.<\/p>\n

Ochieng said the community leaders also plan to revive the Obama Kogelo cultural center to preserve the village\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuture generations must know that it was Obama who gave this village global recognition, and we can only do that by preserving his legacy and the good deeds his name brought to this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Zenger News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SIAYA, Kenya \u2014 The 18-mile-long tarmac road cutting through Nyangoma-Kogelo village, 250 miles northwest of Kenya\u2019s capital, Nairobi,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa-express"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2226,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions\/2226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africanamericanvoice.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}