Former President of the United States Barack Obama’s family tree stretches from his father’s small Kenyan village to the White House in one generation. The former President’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, was born in Kendu Bay, western Kenya, in 1895 (the family grave in the village of Kogelo states 1870). He was named Hussein after converting to Islam. He served as a porter in the British colonial era, as the King of African Rifles during World War I, and as a cook for a British officer during World War II. He married several women and had a son with his second wife Akumu in 1936. The son’s name was Barrack Obama (senior).
Barack Obama’s father, Barack Obama Senior, aLuo of Nyang’oma Kogelo, born to Hussein’s second wife Akumu, came of age during Kenya’s independence and received a scholarship to study in Hawaii in 1959. Ann Dunham in a Russian class at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in 1960. They married on February 2, 1961 in Wailuku, Maui, but the relationship did not last as they separated in late August 1961 when Obama was born. Obama’s mother took her newborn son to the University of Washington in Seattle for a year.
Obama Sr. received his undergraduate degree in economics from Hawaii in June 1962 and received a scholarship to Harvard University Graduate School. In March 1964 he divorced his wife Ann and returned to Kenya the same year and remarried. He died in a car accident in 1982 when his son Obama Jr. was 21 years old.
Before his death, he first visited Barack Obama(Junior) in Hawaii in 1971 when Obama was only 10 years old. Barack Obama Jr. grew up and built his career. He became the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to serve as US President.
The world’s most powerful man, Barrack Obama has little contact with his father’s surviving family members in Kenya, one of whom is his grandfather’s (Hussein) third wife, Sarah Onyango Obama. She is Obama’s oldest living relative, whom he calls “Grandma”. Below is a list of President Obama’s other roots and relatives living in Kenya and beyond.
1. Sarah Onyango Obama (Step-grandmother)
Born: 1921
Sarah is the third wife of Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, and the oldest living relative of the President. Kenyans know her as “Mama Sarah”. She lives in Kogelo in western Kenya.
OBAMA SAID (half-uncle)
Born: 1965
He is a Kogelo born and raised resident and uncle to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. Sarah and Hussein’s son lives in Kisumu in western Kenya. He runs a supply business and an internet café in Kisumu and is the de facto spokesman for the Kenyan Obamas.
YUSUF OBAMA – half- uncle
Born: 1950s
He is among the roots and relatives of President Obama and the son of Sarah and Hussein. Not enough is known about his life and whereabouts. Thought of living in Kisumu.
MALIK OBAMA – Half brother
Born: 1958
Son of Kezia Obama, first wife of Barack Sr. He established the Barack H. Obama Foundation in honor of his father and did not run for political office in Kenya in 2013. He lives in Kisumu.
AUMA OBAMA – half sister
Born: 1960
Photo shows Auma, daughter of Kezia and Barack Sr. with Barack Obama’s wife Michelle. She runs a charity in Kenya and lives in Nairobi. She wrote a memoir called And Then Life Happens in 2012.
ABO OBAMA – half brother
Born: 1968
Abo Obama, standing clockwise from left, is the son of Kezia and Barack Sr. He runs a business and lives in Nairobi.
BERNARD OBAMA
Obama’s half brother stood next to himBorn in 1970. He is also the son of Kezia and Barack Sr. He runs a business and lives in Nairobi. He is one of President Obama’s roots and relatives in Kenya.
GEORGE OBAMA – half brother
Born: 1982
Son of Jael Otieno and Barack Obama Sr, born just months before his father’s death. In 2010 he published an autobiography entitled Homeland: An Extraordinary Story of Hope and Survival. He lives in western Kenya.
The Obamas who live elsewhere
KEZIA OBAMA – stepmother
Born: 1940
Barack Sr’s first wife, mother of Malik and Auma, and later of Abo and Bernard. She has lived in the UK for years and received British citizenship in 2011. She lives in Great Britain.
JAEL OTIENO – Stepmother
Date of birth unknown
Jael is Barack Sr’s fourth wife and mother to George. She lives in the USA.
RUTH NDESANDJO – stepmother
Born: 1940
She is Barack Sr.’s third wife he has met after separating from Obama’s mother while studying at Harvard. She lives in Nairobi. Pictured above, Ruth Baker Ndesandjo sings with her son Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo at the launch of his new book, An Obama’s Journey.
MARK NDESANDJO – half brother
Born: 1966
Another member of President Obama’s roots and relatives is Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo. He is the son of Ruth Ndesandjo and Barrack Sr. Mark, who poses as Barrack Obama and his wife in the photo above. He is a classical pianist who wrote a 2014 memoir called An Obama Journey: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery Across Three Cultures . He lives in China.
MAYA SOETORO-NG – Half sister
Born: 1970
Daughter of Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, and his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro. Soetoro-Ng is a university teacher. She lives in Hawaii.