Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
The seemingly uncoordinated remarks made at the weekend by the 88 year old step grandmother of the US President, Barack Obama, that she had prayed hard for this grandson to convert to Islam, has provoked sharp criticism from Kenyan Christians who felt such utterances were unwarranted and uncalled for.
Mama Sarah Omar OIbama, the step grandmother of the US President Barack Obama, ade the remarks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during an exclusive interview with Al-Wetan, a daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia.
The interview has since been widely carried by all the major international news agencies.
Mama Sarah Obama, who went to Mecca to attend the annual Hajj pilgrimage in the company of her younger son, Said Hussein Obama, and four of her grand children, told the newspaper,” I prayed hard for my grandson, the US President Barack, to convert to Islam.
Kenya’s Sunday NATION, with the largest circulation in East and Central Africa, carried the excerpt of the interview originally published by the Al-Wetan daily last Saturday.
These remarks have since elicited severest criticism by several Christian church leaders in Kenya’s Nyanza Province, where the US leader has a family tree root in Alego Kogelo in Siaya County.
When such a leader who, heads a Christian church with sizable following in the region, and who requested anonymity, said such remarks tend to damage the US President’s relations with the Muslim states, worsen his domestic US politics, and even seriously hart his relations with American Christians.
“These remarks”, the clergyman continued, “could impact negatively on President Obama’s domestic politics in the US and cause tensions between the President and the Christians in a country where the majority of its citizens are devoted Christians”.
He added that Mama Sarah Obama, who had gained instant fame after the election of her step grandson the US presidency, should have been accompanied by someone who could give her proper guidance in all her undertakings during the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Another prominent church leader advised Mama Sarah Obama to steer clear of religious diplomacy, which he claimed are very weighty matters in the world today, particularly when considering the important position held by President Barack Obama in the world today.
One clergyman cited Mama Sarah Obama’s visit to Libya last year at the invitation of the erratic Libyan strongman Muamor El-Gadhafi – – an undertaking which should have required some kind of clearance from the US Whitehouse. Her trip to Libya came about at the time when Washington-Tripoli relations were not very cordial. And it was shrouded in top secrecy.
President Obama eldest step brother Abdul Malik Abong’o Hussein Obama could not be reached for comment. Malik Abong’o Hussein Obama, the 52-year old businessman, was reported to be busy campaigning to be an independent parliamentary candidate for the Alego-Usonga seat in 2012, although he has yet to confirm his candidature.
Those close to the Obma family in rural Kogelo, Alego-Siaya, says he is currently busy visiting door to door collecting signature of the voters as required by the new laws stipulated in the new Kenyan constitution that an independent parliamentary candidate must obtain a certain number of voters signature before such a person could be allowed to participate in the election as an independent candidate not in any existing political party.
Ends
The Obama family in Kenya is quite a let down for Barack Obama and Kenyans in general. The grandmother knows no better, she is being exploited by people who otherwise cared nothing about her were it not for her ‘relationship’ to Barack Obama. Ms Zeituni Onyango, Barack Obama’s auntie currently living in the US has relentlessly brought embarrassment to Barack Obama and Kenyans in general. It is high time the ‘educated faces’ of Obama family who are conversant with world affairs and who have diplomatic disposition to come forward and restore the image of this family. Please Dr Auma Obama, step in and take charge.
Since when is being a Muslim a crime in Kenya? The Muslims have been in Kenya well before the brutal western colonizers arrive, that was around 10th or 11th century. They were traders, not colonizers. The intermarriage between Muslims and local coastal tribes gave birth to SWAHILI!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Kenya
I would understand why United States and other European nations have problems with Muslims! However, why are they trying very hard to make their enemies become the rest of the world’s enemies? Why can’t Kenyans find their own reason for hating the Muslims instead of allowing other people to give them some reason to do so? Are Kenyan ruling elites being paid to sow the seeds of hatred among its own citizens like they have done along the tribal lines?
Until the bombing of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam, there were no problems between the Kenyan Christians and the Muslim Community! I do not believe all Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania were responsible for these two bombings in which lives were lost.
The western corporate war-lords who are promoting this intense the anti- Muslim squabble among Kenyans are also very engaged in the cover up of the resources genocides in Rwanda and Congo in which 10 million unarmed Africans have lost their lives. These many Africans have died because the war-lords wanted to control the vast Congolese natural resources after sending Mobutu in exile in Morocco!
I don’t think that this thing works properly. But we will see…