Sarah Obama, Grandmother To Barack Obama Is Dead

Mama Sarah Obama, the grandmother to former United States of America President Barack Obama, is dead. The family has confirmed. She died on Monday morning at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital in Kisumu.

Sarah Onyango Obama was born around 1922 and hailed as a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of the paternal grandfather of U.S. President Barack Obama. She was living in Nyang’oma Kogelo village.

Although she is not a blood relation, Barack Obama calls her “Granny Sarah”. Sarah spoke Luo and only a few words of English. She often communicated with President Obama through an interpreter.

On July 4, 2008, Sarah Obama attended the United States Independence Day celebrations in Nairobi, hosted by Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador in Kenya.

During the U.S. presidential campaign, she protested attempts to portray Obama as a foreigner to the United States or as a Muslim, saying that while Obama’s grandfather had been a Muslim.

More to follow.