Obama's legacy of broken promises – in Kenya

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Obama's legacy of broken promises in Kenya

School in family village named after him remains unfunded despite pledge

Posted: December 19, 20119:38 pm Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi 2011 WND

A school named for Barack Obama in Kenya has abandoned hope that the U.S. president willhonor a pledge he made as senator to finance it, according to a report in Kenya commissioned byWND.

The report further revealed that Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, continues tolive the modest rural life she lived before Obama became president, despite greater security

provided by the Kenyan government.

Today, Kogelo is a fenced-in rural village with 24-hour government-funded police surveillancethat keeps press and visitors at bay, preventing direct access to the Obama family members there.

A former Kenyan Parliament member with whom WND has worked confidentially since 2008compiled the report. The research was assigned to trusted Kenyan professionals who conductedthe field work and reported their findings in writing.

Obama fails to fund school named after him

According to the report, the Senator Obama Secondary School's senior teacher, Dalmas Raloo, isat a loss to explain why Obama has failed to fund the school named after him, as promised.

Raloo said Obama's family in Kenya is mystified by what they are calling "Obama's lapse."

"If you ask whether the family think Obama should give something to the village and to the

school, the answer is 'Yes, definitely,'" Raloo told WND researchers in Kenya. "But supportshould come from Obama spontaneously. We shouldn't have to ask him to keep his promises."

The Kenyan research team documented that at his historic homecoming in August 2006, Obamawas greeted as a hero with thousands lining the dirt streets of Kogelo.

"Obama visited the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School named after him built on landdonated by his paternal grandfather," the report reads. "After addressing the pupils, a third of

whom are orphans, and dancing with them as they sang songs in his honor, Obama was shown aschool with four dilapidated classrooms that lacked even basic resources, such as water,sanitation and electricity."

Obama told the assembled press and local politicians, including his fellow Luo tribesman andcurrent prime minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, that, "Hopefully I can provide some assistance to


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this school and all that it can be."

At the same event, Obama told the school's principal, Yuanita Obiero, and her teachers: "I knowyou are working very hard and struggling to bring up the school, but I have said I will assist theschool, and I will do so."

Citing the quotations, the London Evening Standard on July 25, 2008, reported that Obierointerpreted Obama's words as an offer of financial assistance.

Obiero further referenced to the newspaper a letter dated June 22, 2005, addressed to her andsigned by Obama shortly after his 2004 election to the U.S. Senate.

Obama wrote: "I am honored that you have decided to rename the Kogelo School in my name."

Obiero and her board of governors even presented a nine-page proposal to Obama asking for $8.2million Kenyan shillings, about $98,000 to upgrade the school. The requests were to sink a

borehole and build a water tank, erect a perimeter fence, complete a science laboratory, add newclasses, build additional latrines and add a school dining hall.

In 2006, when then-U.S. Ambassador William Bellamy came to visit the school for the renamingceremony, Obiero gave him two copies of the proposal one for the U.S. Embassy and the otherfor then Sen. Obama.

Today, the village of Kogelo has lost hope that Obama will fulfill his promise to fund the schoolnamed after him.

A fenced-in rural village

After the killing of Osama bin Laden, Kenya has tightened security around the house ofGrandmother Sarah in Kenya.

"As a result of the security challenges, including the threat of terror, I can confirm that wedecided to improve security at home," she told WND researchers in Kenya.

Francis Muti, the regional administrator said there was no immediate threat to the family, butKenya was on high alert after a warning from adherents of al-Qaida after U.S. Special Forces inPakistan killed bin Laden.

"All the guests were to be examined in detail," Muti said. "Everyone, including family members

have to facilitate the work of security forces."

As seen in Exhibit 2, the village of Kogelo containing Sarah's home has been fenced with barbed

wire and with a notice board displaying the authorized visiting hours.

As seen in Exhibit 3, a police station has been constructed at Kogelo, with public funds.


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As seen in Exhibit 4, Sarah continues to live in a small, semi-permanent house that despite recentimprovements still has no running water.

As seen in Exhibit 5, Sarah continues to have roving chickens around her home, as well as goatsand cows not seen in this photograph.

Inside the home, the walls are decorated with a 2008 "Obama for President" bumper sticker, anold "Barack Obama for Senate" poster on which Obama wrote, "Mama Sara Habari [how are

you?]" and a 2005 calendar that says, "The Kenya Wonder Boy in the US," plus more than adozen family photos.

Two armed security guards patrol Sarah's house, which is adjacent to the Senator Obama KogeloSecondary School.

The house is basic, with a concrete floor, an outside kitchen and latrines.

The only sign of modernity is the recently installed solar power unit that provides electricity forlights and a television set.

Chairs are neatly laid out around the sides of the living room, each with an embroidered cover.

The graves of Obama's father and grandfather are in the yard around Sarah's home. Several

Obama cousins and uncles, including Sayed Obama, his father's younger brother, also live on thecompound in smaller one-room houses.

Behind the house there is a thriving maize plantation and a clump of banana trees, in addition tothe giant mango trees that dominate the property.

Villagers told WND researchers that Sarah, 88 years old, still goes to market where she sells herhomegrown fruit and vegetables.

Hopes dashed

The market is where WND researchers heard villagers express disappointment over hopes they

once held that Obama would transform their lives in Kogelo.

Mary Manasse, who runs the Mama Siste Mini Shop selling staples such as bread and cow's milk

packaged in old soda bottles, told researchers she has a photograph of Obama shaking hands withher on his 2006 visit.

"Back then I was looking after 40 orphans at the orphan center," she recalled. "We faced adesperate shortage of money, and Obama told us that he especially liked special, dedicated

projects like ours and wanted to help.

"A few months later we were forced to shut down the orphan center because of lack of funds.


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Just a million Kenyan shillings (about $12,000) would have kept us going another year. I feeldisappointed that he did not come through."

A few stalls away, mango-seller Gladys Anyango did an impromptu Obama impression to theamusement of her fellow peddlers.

She placed her hands on her hips, gazed into the middle distance, and mimicking Obama's deepvoice she said: "How are you, people of Kogelo?"

Anyango's impressions of Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha,typically produce laughter among the on-lookers.

"We have hope that he will bring electricity and build schools so the children have a goodeducation," Anyango continued. "Maybe he will remember his roots and look after his

community in Kenya."

As seen in Exhibit 6, the Kenyan government has also embarked on very aggressive roadconstruction to smooth and grade the dirt road to "The Obamas."

The road upgrade cost an estimated 800 million Kenyan shillings, equivalent to $9.6 million. Thesum generated political charges of favoritism at a time when thousands of Kenyans are still livingin makeshift camps as a result of the approximately 500,000 who fled their homes in the tribal

violence that followed Odinga's defeat in the 2007 presidential election.

As seen in Exhibit 7, a government-funded series of buildings designed as a cultural museum to

honor Obama birthplace lie unfinished within the village.

WND has previously reported the Kenyan government in 2009 commissioned the culturalmuseum to honor the "birthplace of President Barack Obama" and rededicate the tomb of hisfather, Barack Obama Sr.

WND also reported the Kenyan government has placed Sarah on a government stipend of 50,000Kenyan shillings ($600) per month.

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Color-Coded Legend:

Yellow = word-for-word copying from the Evening Standard;Orange = content taken from the AFP;

Pink = specific references to the work of 'WND researchers';Blue = credited citations to the Evening Standard

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Obama's legacy of broken promises – in Kenya