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Former President Barack Obama has lost his grandmother, Sarah Obama, 99, who suffered from an undisclosed illness in Kisumu, Western Kenya, CNN reported Monday.
The matriarch of the Obama family was the stepmother of Barack Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr., and was known throughout Kenya for her philanthropic work. NPR reported that “Mama Sarah,” as she was called by many who knew her, worked to secure education for girls and orphaned youth and led community development projects in Kogelo, the village where she lived.
Kisumu Gov. Anyang Nyong’o described Mama Sarah as a “role model” who came to many families’ aid by raising money to support them and pay for schooling for children.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement to the Obama family, “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.”
After she won the first Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Education Pioneer Award at the United Nations in 2014, Ms. Obama told NPR, “I help the orphans and widows, especially the young girls who have been orphaned by their parents dying of H.I.V., I am their sole parent right now,” she said. “So I help pay school fees and also get them the things they need, like sanitary towels, books, necessities like a pencil, school uniforms. That’s what I do.”
Ms. Obama was married to Barack Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama. She gained prominence in America upon her 2009 visit to attend her grandson’s presidential inauguration, said The New York Times.
In a statement released on Monday, the Former US President spoke fondly of his grandmother, whom he called “Granny.”
“When I first traveled to Kenya to learn more about my heritage and father, who had passed away by then, it was Granny who served as a bridge to the past, and it was her stories that helped fill a void in my heart.”