Sarah Onyango Obama

Sarah Onyango Obama (1922 – March 29, 2021) was a Kenyan educator and philanthropist. She was the third wife of Hussein Onyango Obama, the paternal grandfather of U.S. president Barack Obama and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr. She was known by her short name as Sarah Obama and was sometimes referred to as Sarah Ogwel, Sarah Hussein Obama, or Sarah Anyango Obama. She lived in Nyang'oma Kogelo village, 48 km (30 miles) west of western Kenya's main city, Kisumu, on the edge of Lake Victoria.

Biography As a young woman, Sarah Obama helped raise her stepson Barack Obama Sr. She was a firm believer in quality early education and regularly took him on her bicycle to primary school so that he could get the education she had been denied.

She first met her step grandson, Barack Obama II, the future President of the United States, during his visit to Kenya in 1988. Although she was not a blood relation, Barack Obama called her "Granny Sarah". In addition to mentioning her in his memoir Dreams from My Father, he spoke about her in his 2014 speech to the United Nations General Assembly. At one point in her life, she worked as a cook for Christian missionaries, On July 4, 2008, she attended the United States Independence Day celebrations in Nairobi, hosted by Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador in Kenya. The following year, she attended Barack Obama's first presidential inauguration. in a hospital in Kisumu, Western Kenya, having suffered with an undisclosed illness a few days earlier. Following her death, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a statement praising her as strong, virtuous, and "an icon of family values".