Sarah Onyango, step-grandmother of the former President of the United States of America, Barrack Obama, has been reported dead. She died at the age of 99.
Popularly known as Mama Sarah, she was admitted to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu on Sunday morning but died in the early hours of Monday.
The family is making arrangements to have her buried today (Monday) at the Muslim Cemetery in Kisumu.
“We are trying to see whether we shall be able to bury her today and if not, we shall bury her tomorrow,” a relative said.
Once a simple countrywoman, Sarah Obama was for a long time best known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school.
But she rose to world fame with the 2008 election of her step-grandson Barack as the first black US president.
Already a national celebrity after the former Illinois senator Barack Obama visited Kenya in 2006, Sarah’s modest homestead became a tourist attraction with Obama’s November 2008 election triumph.
According to Nairobi News, the development was confirmed by her daughter, Marsat Obama, who disclosed that she died at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital, Kisumu at 4.45 am on Monday.
Sarah Onyango was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning but died in the early hours of Monday.
