Sarah Obama laid to rest at her Kogelo home
By Wifridah Muthee
Mama Sarah Obama was laid to rest at her Kogelo home on Tuesday 30th march 2021.
Her body left Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital to her home Kogelo at around midday on Monday.
Mama sarah was laid to rest according to Muslim rites.
Mourners who wanted to attend the burial ceremony were locked out of Mama Sarah Obama’s home, ahead of the burial due to the stringent measures put in place by the government to curb rising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
There was presence of heavy security around her Kogelo home, Siaya County as authorities barred journalists, religious leaders and mourners from accessing the compound with roadblocks having been erected along the roads leading to the compound, and several police officers guarding the entry into the home.
Only close family and a few guests attended the interment.
Mama Sarah Obama died on Monday morning at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
Former US President Barrack Obama paid tribute to his late grandmother Mama Sarah eulogizing her as a family lady who stood with her family during good and difficult times.
“My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as “Mama Sarah” but known to us as ‘Dani’ or ‘Granny’. …Although not his birth mother, Granny would raise my father as her own, and it was in part thanks to her love and encouragement that he was able to defy the odds and do well enough in school to get a scholarship to attend an American university. When our family had difficulties, her homestead was a refuge for her children and grandchildren, and her presence was a constant, stabilizing force.” The former US president said.
Barrack also in the tribute remembered how when he first traveled to Kenya, the late Mama Sarah served as a bridge served as a bridge to the past, and it was her stories that helped fill a void in his heart.
“During the course of her life, Granny would witness epochal changes taking place around the globe: world war, liberation movements, moon landings, and the advent of the computer age. She would live to fly on jets, receive visitors from around the world, and see one of her grandsons get elected to the United States presidency. And yet her essential spirit—strong, proud, hard-working, unimpressed with conventional marks of status and full of common sense and good humor—never changed.” Barrack eulogized her grandmother.
President Uhuru Kenyatta also joined other leaders to condole the Obama family after the passing of Sarah Obama saying she was an icon of family values and a philanthropist whose contribution to the progress of the Kenyan nation shall be dearly missed
“The passing away of Mama Sarah is a big blow to our nation. We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman. A matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values,” President Uhuru said
Deputy President William Ruto also sent his message of condolences saying Kenya has lost a charismatic, self-determined and formidable figure who played an instrumental part in supporting and promoting the welfare of the vulnerable in the society.
The country have lost a matriarch who lived ahead of her time, ODM Leader Raila Odinga offered.
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