Obama Senior
A Dream Fulfilled
Kenway Autobiographies
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A Love Affair with the Sun, Michael Blundell
Facing Mount Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta
From Simple to Complex: The Journey of a Herdsboy, Prof Joseph Maina Mungai
Illusion of Power, GG Kariuki
The Mediator: General Sumbeiywo and the Sudan Peace Process, Waithaka Waihenya
Madatally Manji: Memoirs of a Biscuit Baron, Madatally Manji
My Journey Through African Heritage, Allan Donovan
Nothing but the Truth, Yusuf K Dawood
Tales from Africa, Douglas Collins
Theatre Near the Equator, Annabel Maule
The Southern Sudan: Struggle for Liberty, Elijah Malok
Wings of the Wind, Valerie Cuthbert
Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget, David Goldsworthy
Not Yet Uhuru, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga
Freedom and After, Tom Mboya
Dreams in a Time of War, Ngg wa Thiongo
Beyond Expectations: From Charcoal to Gold, Njenga Karume with Mutu wa Gethoi
A Profile of Kenyan Entrepreneurs, Wanjiru Waithaka and Evans Majeni
Running for Black Gold: Fifty Years of African Athletics, Kevin Lillis
Kiraitu Murungi: An Odyssey in Kenyan Politics, Peter Kagwanja with Humphrey Ringera
In the House of the Interpreter, Ngg wa Thiongo
Kenyan Student Airlifts to America, 1959-1961: An Educational Odyssey, Robert F Stephens
A Daunting Journey, Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini
Dash before Dusk: A slave descendants journey in freedom, Joe Khamisi
Obama Senior: A Dream Fulfilled, Fredrick Donde
Obama Senior
A Dream Fulfilled
Fredrick Donde
Nairobi Kampala Dar es Salaam Kigali Lilongwe LusakaPublished by
Kenway
an imprint of
East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
Brick Court, Mpaka Road/Woodvale Grove Westlands,
P. O. Box 45314, Nairobi 00100, KENYA
Tel: +254 20 2324762 / 2324757 / 2324760
Cell: +254 722 205 660 / 733 677 716 / 722 207 216
Email:
Website: www.eastafricanpublishers.com
East African Educational Publishers also has offices or is represented in the following countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Sudan.
Fredrick Donde, 2015
First published 2015
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-9966-56-039-1
Printed in Kenya by
Printwell Industries Ltd.
P.O. Box 5216-0506
Nairobi, Kenya
CONTENTS
I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
Nelson Mandela, 1964
To
My parents, Esau and Eva
You are the love and light within us.
My wife, Mary
My companion in life, sadly missed, warmly remembered.
Your spirit lives on!
And to
All jo-dak (immigrants)
Frowned upon by others of a better claim, your lot is often precarious.
Yet, we are all sojourners in this mysterious journey of life.
I was a young man growing up when I first met my cousin, Barack Hussein Obama Senior in KaRachuonyo at KObama Village in Southern Nyanza, Kenya. Their family lived in Nyangoma KOgelo in Siaya County in Central Nyanza, but he was a regular visitor to KaRachuonyo, where he was born and spent most of his early years before his father, Hussein Obama Onyango, migrated to Alego. I had no inkling that he was destined for greater things. All I noted was a serious and stern-looking individual who brooked no dissent. But maybe that was because I was still young, and I was yet to know him.
When, later in 1966, he invited me to live with him at his family house in Woodley Estate in Nairobi, I had just joined high school. I was to stay with him until I finished my secondary-level education four years later. As I got to know him better, I was exposed fully to his generous heart and his frank and honest opinion on a broad range of issues. I experienced first-hand his fearlessness that sometimes bordered on insolence, and his happy-go-lucky side. I was much younger than him, but we had become buddies.
He was always free and uninhibited with me, and that is how I first heard him speak proudly of his children and about his son in a faraway land. I was to hear much more about him. We had a fine time together, and I was witness to the highs and lows in the life of Barack Obama Senior. We enjoyed the good life together at Woodley Estate. That was when he worked for the Ministry of Economic Planning, and though the job had its share of frustrations, the income was good, allowing him to lead a respectable life. Yes, the politics affected him, too. The undercurrents were always there, the simmering tensions between the independence leaders. Corruption had already reared its ugly head too, and listening to street talk and murmured conversations among the townspeople, one could not fail to notice the build up to a confrontation of some sort.
I was in Nairobi that fateful afternoon of 5 July 1969, when Tom Mboya, then Minister for Economic Planning, was felled by a lone gunman in the dusty streets of Nairobi. I can never forget that date. For, as if on cue, the entire nation rose up in anger and riots, with angry mobs running amok in the streets and threatening the very fabric of the young nation. Many things happened in the aftermath of that terrible deed, but whatever can be said, Kenya was never the same again.
And so was my friend, Barack Obama Senior. Indeed, he had become more than just a cousin; we were true friends who shared in the ebb and flow of life, and who had witnessed some of the most important events and periods of each others lives. Following Tom Mboyas assassination, and the unfolding socio-economic and political environment, he lost his customary confidence and verve for life. Soon, an uncharacteristic furtiveness crept in, and he hit the bottle harder. Yes, there was talk of threats to his life, of strange cars trailing him in the night, and of near-misses on the road.
By that time, he had helped me get my first job in the Coca Cola Companys Nairobi Bottlers plant in 1971, where I would serve until my retirement 25 years later. I was there when he lost his job at the Ministry, and when the worst happened when he was unceremoniously bundled out of his house at Woodley. It was my turn to offer refuge, and I hosted him at my humble quarters in New Ngara Flats on the other side of town. That was probably the lowest point of his life, and he became greatly disillusioned. Still, he kept himself useful, helping with administrative duties at Chandlane Nursing Home in Nairobi that was owned by his old friend, Dr Oluoch.
