Obama’s step-grandmother and family matriarch Sarah Obama dies at 99: ‘We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman’

‘We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman, a matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values’

(AFP via Getty Images)

The matriarch of former President Barack Obama’s Kenyan family has died at the age of at least 99, her family confirmed on Monday, as President Uhuru Kenyatta hailed Sarah Obama as a “strong, virtuous woman”.

Ms Obama, who was known in her rural village of Kogelo as “Mamma Sarah,” was an education advocate for girls and orphans. Her family said she was sick with “normal diseases” and had tested negative for Covid-19. 

The former president was informed of his step-grandmother’s passing shortly after her death, the Associated Press reported. 

In a statement, the Kenyan president described Ms Obama’s passing as “a big blow to our nation” and added: “We’ve lost a strong, virtuous woman, a matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values.”

Sheik Musa Ismail, a spokesperson for the family, confirmed Ms Obama had not passed away from the coronavirus. They said the family matriarch, who was at least 99, had been sick for some time, and was being treated at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral hospital in Kisumu.

Mr Obama said in a statement: “My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as ‘Mama Sarah’ but known to us as ‘Dani’ or Granny. We will miss her dearly, but we’ll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life.’

She will be remembered for her work to promote education to empower orphans, Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o said while offering his condolences to the people of Kogelo village for losing a matriarch.

“She was a philanthropist who mobilized funds to pay school fees for the orphans,” he said.

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Sarah Obama was the second wife of President Obama’s grandfather and helped raise his father, Barack Obama, Sr. The family is part of Kenya’s Luo ethnic group.

The former president often showed affection toward her and referred to her as “Granny” in his memoir, Dreams from My Father. He described meeting her during his 1988 trip to his father’s homeland and their initial awkwardness as they struggled to communicate, but said they developed a warm bond. She attended his first inauguration as president in 2009. Later, Mr Obama spoke about his grandmother again in his September 2014 speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

For decades, Sarah Obama helped orphans, raising some in her home. The Mama Sara Obama Foundation helped provide food and education to children who lost their parents - providing school supplies, uniforms, basic medical needs, and school fees.

In a 2014 interview with theAP, she said that even as an adult, letters would arrive but she couldn’t read them. She said she didn’t want her children to be illiterate, so she saw to it that all her family’s children went to school.

She recalled pedaling the president’s father six miles to school on the back of her bicycle every day from the family’s home village of Kogelo to the bigger town of Ngiya to make sure he got the education that she never had.

“I love education,” Sarah Obama said, because children “learn they can be self-sufficient,” especially girls who too often had no opportunity to go to school.

“If a woman gets an education she will not only educate her family but educate the entire village,” she said.

In recognition of her work to support education, she was honored by the United Nations in 2014, receiving the inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Education Pioneer Award.

The Associated Press contributed to this report