Exclusive Report By Leo Odra Omolo In Kisumu City.

President Barack Obama Jnr. of the United States could be sharing one ancestral background with the late Thomas Joseph Mboya, a charismatic and dynamic Kenyan politician and trade unionist who died in hails of bullets fired by an assassin in the Kenyan capital, Nairob1 42 years ago.

The late Barack Obama Snr, the father of the US President who died in 1982 befriended Mboya way back in 1956. But the two men who had a lot in common and character lived briefly and died without knowing that they had any blood relationship.

They lived apart and were geographically separated from each other’s family and none could have imagined the smallest iota of blood relationship between them.

Tom Mboya was born on a sisal estate at Killimambogo area of Thika district the called Juja Calimoni in 1930. Both his parents were born on Rusinga Island, but his father was employed in the Sisal estate owned by white settlers as” Nyapara” {Supervisor} while Barack Obama Snr. was born at Kanyadhiang’ village in Central Karachuonyo in what used to be South Nyanza district.

The history of Mboya-Obama relationship has been unearthed by a Kisumu-based Kenyan veteran journalist Leo Odera Omolo who knew the two men well, but who is currently carrying out a personal research on Mboya’s background for the purpose of writing a book on the slain politician’s background.

HE HAS TRACED Mboya background and family tree to one sub-clan in Asembo Location, Rarieda district in Siaya County. The sub-clan is called Asembo-Kanyugoro. Both the historians and Luo elder have confirmed that this sub-clan’s ancestral grand father was a man called “Nyigoro”.

Nyigoro is undisputed eldest son of Ogelo, son of Kisodhi son of Owiny. OGELO WAS THE ELDEST SON OF Kisodhi, but he had other brothers like Ager,Owiny Sigoma whom he named after his father, Nyakwar and several others. Upon the death of Kisdhi who was a chieftain, Ogelo and his other disagreed on the way and manner some tribal rituals cleansing which were performed by the elders his father’s death and rebelled. He bolt out of the family homestead and moved out of Alego Nyang’oma where the family lived and travelled to a place called Abom where h settled in forest (now part of Sakwa East in Bondo district.

Enraged by what happened when his younger brother was installed the chieftain in his place Ogelo move out during the wee hours of the night taking with hi his wives, family’s herd of cattle and all domestic animals and children. In rebellion with Ogelo was his younger brother Nyakwar.

And while living at Abom his eldest Nyigoro move further to a place now called Asembo and settled. It was here where the sub-clan called “Wayubu” Mboya’s own sub-clan branched off and move into some small islands inside lake Victoria on fishing expedition. But Mboya’s great grand parents found the going tough following the outbreak of the deadly sleeping sickness disease caused by tsetse fly, which almost whipped out many clans and sub-clans of the Luos then living along the shorelines of Lake Victoria. Mboya’s great grand father moved out of the fishing island and landed on Rusinga Island where the family settled among the Wasengre{Kamasengre} which is also related to the Wasenge of Yimbo.

Here is the place where Mboya’s father was born in a small village called Matenga which is very close to the shore of Lake Victoria. Mboya’s father Leonardus Ndiege late married Marshella Awuor the daughter of Nyang’ani of the Kakinaga sub-clan in Kamasengre clan, which is closely related to another small sub-clan living in Rusinga East called Kamgere where this writer belonged to.

Talks and murmuring about Mboya’s originality was persistently raised, and even during his marriage to Pamela Mboya in 1961, some elders from Asembo Kanyigoro had insisted in paying the first cows for the pride price his wife, but the issue was suppressed and defused by Mboya and his father in-law the late Walter Fanuel Odede of Uyoma Katweng’a sub-clan and Makerere University trained veterinarian who became a formidable nationalist who was equally detained by the British colonialist during the state of emergency in the remote Maralal in Samburu district from 1953 to 1961.

Among the clans which shared blood relationship with Alego Kogelo include Alego Kakan, Kanyada,Jo-Boro,Kanyakwar, Kagan.These clans are now well spread inside Luo-Nyanza with Kanyakwar livng a few kilometers in the outskirt of Kisumu City, while Kanyada and Kagan lives in Homa-Bay,Kaka and,Kogelo and partly jo-Boro lives in Alego,and Ugenya. Kogelo are well spread in many parts of greater Southern Nyanza like Nyatike,Awendo, Karachuonyo,Kasipul Kabondo and other places.

The movement of the Alego Kogelo the ancestral of President Barack Obama Jnr. and the movement of Asembo Kanyigoro the ancestral of Tom Mboya as authenticicated here now confirmed with no slightest of doubt that Obama and Mboya have blood relationship.

The late Barack Obama Snr. and the late Tom Mboya friendship from 1956 up July 5,1959 when the latter was felled by an assassin bullet in Nairobi street on Saturday afternoon, though thy differed at time ideologically.

During the time when their friendship flourished in the early 1950s,the two men had a lot in common in their characters, both were very eloquent in English, elegantly dressed, dancers per excellence and liked to keep the company of beautiful women, though Obama Snr. was rather bullies and arrogance Mboya was ever polite, but extremely cunning and intelligent. He was also excessively arrogance, though hiding his arrogance while appearing in public places like a politician and unionist.

The had series of failed marriages and numerous cases of divorce and father many children in the wedlock. both men were handsome and charming and loved by young educated girls.

Mboya was late to facilitate Obama’s higher education in the US together with other Kenyans who flew out in 1959 and 1961 in the great Airlift to study in the American colleges and universities.. After Mboya’s death Obama Snr. life drastically changed was never the same again.

After Mboya’s death in 1969, Obama Snr. life had changed drastically, He had lost an intimate friend, mentor and protector in the civil service where he served in senior capacity in the Treasury. He looked frustrated and demoralized and lie was never the same again for him.

The two men died and went into their graves without knowing one important secret, which was never revealed t them in their lifetime by anyone.

Mr Omolo’s book is expected to be published early next year.

Ends