June 7, 2015
Grave of Obama's Father to Get Facelift Before Presidential Visit
Pres. Obama’s father’s grave, cleaned of leaves by first cousin, Moses Obama
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network
(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Preparing for the July visit of President Barack Obama, officials of Siaya County in Kenya are proposing to spend 1 million shillings or just over $10,000 on the restoration, maintenance and care of the grave.
Governor Cornel Rasanga gave the Department of Tourism the go-ahead to implement the project before Air Force One arrives in Nairobi.
The grave restoration funds will also cover Obama’s grandfather who lies next to his father. Other plans for the site include a visitor’s park in Kogelo, where Mama Sarah [Obama’s stepmother] will receive her visitors,” Siaya tourism chief Charles Akello said on the phone yesterday.
"Remember these plans were planned long ago, before we even had information that the US President would be visiting the country,'' he said.
President Obama’s travel plans became widely known after a phone call to President Uhuru Kenyatta following the devastating terror attack on Kenya’s Garissa University that claimed over 140 lives.
Obama expressed his condolences and those of American citizens for the students and security personnel killed during the attack. He assured President Kenyatta he had not changed his plans to co-host the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Kenya as part of his of his 4th presidential trip to Africa.
The summit brings together business owners, educators, policymakers and investors to support the growth of new enterprises in developing regions. It will be taking place in Africa for the first time..
This will be the 5th African country Obama would be visiting since he became President and his first presidential trip to Kenya where his father was born. A previous visit took place in 2006 when Obama was still a senator.
It also emerged this week that Felix Kiprono, a lawyer in Nairobi, has offered 50 cows, 70 sheep and 30 goats for Obama’s daughter Malia’s hand in marriage. “People might say I am after the family’s money, which is not the case,” he told the Nairobian newspaper. "My love is real."