Reports Leo Odera Omolo in Kisumu City.

A Kenyan popular daily newspaper the morning came out with an exclusive story and illustrations of a motor vehicle in which the father of the US President Barack Obama Jnr met his death in 1982.

The paper had traced the green 1981 make Chevrolet LUV pick-up in Homa-Bay Town about 300 kilometers south west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The vehicle looks like an ordinary 30-year old workhorse that has seen better days. And yet the pick-up holds stories and secrets tha6t its present owner Joseph Owili Ongei will never know.

In an exclusive page one story the paper narrated that this was the car in which Barrack Hussein Obama Snr met his cold death on a cold night in Nairobi in November 1982.

The exclusive story about this particular vehicle has attracted a large number of readers for this particular paper. And became an instant sales boom.

The late Barrack Obama Snr had returned to Kenya in 1964 from Hawaii where he had married the mother of the future US President Ann Stanley Dunham. Their son, Barack Obama Jnr {Now the US President} was born in 1961 and in 2008 would become the President of the United States of America.

As an economist per excellence Obama Snr immediately changed several jobs before landing one as a top economist in charge of statistics at the ministry of Finance. In his rank and job specification as well as seniority Obama Snr was entitled to a new car at regular intervals.

Among the illustrations accompanying the story is the vehicle at its states during the accident, and thereafter following extensive repair work. The illustrations showing a broken steering wheel, which is believed to have hit Obama Snr side of the chest perhaps rupturing his heart and caused instant death.

It now put to rest the rumor fueled by the Obama Snr family in Kenya that the top economist’s death was an act of government sponsored assassination scheme. The vehicle had hit the tree from the driver’s right side, giving the late Obama no chance of escaping death. The sides appeared to have been smashed.

Also showing is the late Obama Snr’s national identity card, his death certificate. the steering wheel that killed Obama and the photograph of a Mr Patrick Obondo the mechanic who repaired the pick-up, the vehicles logbook and Mr Owili its current owner who purchased it as a junk from the late Obama Snr widow at the price of Kshs 78,000.

The accompanying story says in 1981 Obama became eligible for another vehicle of his choice for the government to buy for him, with the purchase price deducted from his monthly salary until the amount was fully recovered.

The late Obama Snr walked into the General Motors showroom in Nairobi and chose the Chevrolet LUV KB25 model, chassis 9583320,that was given registration number plate KTH 018.

Many of his peers considered it an odd choice. Other senior bureaucrats were go9ng for sleek saloon that suited their status. Obama ’s social life involved driving to drinking joins around Nairobi, where he would park the Chev Luv, as it was known, outside the bar and engage in loud conversation and backslapping.

Prior to this Obama Snr was involved in two major traffic accidents before the third ended his life prematurely.

In 1966 he reportedly killed a young man in an accident, even though details are not forthcoming. Following that crash, he spent almost a year recuperating in hospital but was still left with bad leg.

Upon his discharge in December after another accident Obama Snr made a month long trip to the US and visited Hawaii where he was re-united with his ex-wife Anne Dunham and their 10 year-old son Barack. That was the last time the 10-year old Obama would see his father alive. Obama Snr later lost his legs in another fatal crash.

Shortly after he bought this pick-up in 1981, he was dismissed from the Finance Ministry, either because of his drinking or because he had scathingly criticized the Treasury policy paper. He then sunk into alcoholism and abject poverty.

The report further stated,” He was just like Mr Toad [from Wind In The Willows}, very arrogant on the road, especially, when he had whisky inside.

On the night of November 24,1982, Obama entered his car for the last time. He died minutes later when his car hit a tree on Elgon Road in Nairobi’s posh Upper Hill estate.

He report that followed the postmortem, written by the longtime Nairobi pathologist Dr Ayres Lorenco Ribeiro, said death was caused by “bleeding du to ruptured heart due to a traffic accident.”The impact on his chest was so severe that the steering wheel broke. The wreckage was towed to the Treasury Building in Nairobi.

It was store in the basement for years alongside several other grounded cars until the August 1998 terrorist attack on the US Embassy in Nairobi.

Following the terrorists blast, the government of Kenya issued a directive for all broken vehicle to be towed to a central yard outside the City center. Obama’s beloved Chev Luv lay there out in the open for another eight years until an electrical technician Owili developed an interest in it.

He had seen it at the government yard behind the Finance Office where he worked but never gave it a second glance until his long time friend Benard Raburu urged him to buy it. But by then I was earning no more than Ksh 1,500” recalls Owili who had just quit his job as a technician to join the Ministry of Finance.

“I needed a pick-up in case I was retrenched, which was the norm back then, so that I could use it to do business,” Owili told the NAIROBISTAR

Little did Owili know that the “junk” he had just bought linked him to President of the United States.“ I paid Obama’s widow Kshs 78,000 for the car and took possession of it. I immediately had a mechanic dismantle the engine to overhaul it because it had been dormant for many years. I had the body towed to a garage in Grogan Road {Today Kirinyaga Road, where a different mechanic worked on it.” recalls Owili.

“For impact to break the steering wheel, it must have been great, said the automotive mechanic Patrick Odundo who restored the vehicle. It took a lot of work to make the car roadworthy again,” he said.

After I finished it, it looked very beautiful and everyone congratulated me.”

Due to cash constraints, it took Owili almost a year to get the Chevrolet Luv back on the road. He then looked for the registration documents t transfer it to his name.

“When I bought the car, I had no idea it was the one that the President’s father used to drive, he narrates. “You can imagine my shock when I saw the log book.”

Apart from the registration documents, Obama’s widow also gave him a copy of Obama’s national identity card and death certificate, together with a letter authorizing the transfer of the vehicle’s ownership. Owili said he drove the vehicle round Nairobi for a yea before he drove to his rural home in Homa-Bay about 300 kilometers to the south west of the capital., and about 250 kilometers from Obama Snr rural home in Alego Kogelo in Siaya district 250 kilometer away.

“It is now old and cannot carry heavy loads anymore but I keep it because it was my first car and because I am proud to be associated with President Obama,”said Owili.” If President Obama wants to keep it as part of his family heritage, I can consider parting with it”,said Owili who said he had not considered selling the vehicle..Old cars can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on internet auction site EBay. It is difficult to estimate what the Chev Luv would fetch.

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