KENYA: U.S. President Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives filled with joy at his Nobel Peace Prize

Record ID: 362025

  • Title: KENYA: U.S. President Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives filled with joy at his Nobel Peace Prize
  • Date: 11th October 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Luo) U.S. PRESIDENT'S STEP-GRANDMOTHER, MAMA SARAH, SAYING: "I'm very grateful that he won a prize for peace. It makes me happy because he is bringing peace that we all need in the whole world. I know that the whole world is very happy, even those who voted for him are very happy with his work. It's a good example for the young people who are also coming up. O
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA6YE36KL4XJS73D39AG6O39CM
  • Story Text: U.S. President Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives speak of their pride at his surprise win of the Nobel Peace Prize less than a year into his presidency.
    U.S. President Barack Obama's surprise Nobel Peace Prize award has left many questioning whether it was awarded to the charismatic leader sooner than he had earned it.
    But that's not the case with his Kenyan relatives in the village of Kogelo, home to his step-grandmother Mama Sarah.
    "I'm very grateful that he won a prize for peace. It makes me happy because he is bringing peace that we all need in the whole world. I know that the whole world is very happy, even those who voted for him are very happy with his work. It's a good example for the young people who are also coming up. One day they will also be great leaders of the world like him," she said.
    The 87-year-old has adopted 82 orphans between the ages of four and 18, mostly children to parents who died from AIDS.
    "My only message to him is to urge him and thank him to keep on doing more in bringing peace all over the world and also here in our country. It's God's plan and he should not give up wherever he is," she added.
    Obama who traces his roots to a small village in western Kenya won the coveted prize for giving the world "hope for a better future" and striving for nuclear disarmament, in a surprise award that drew criticism as well as praise.
    Overjoyed relatives visited Mama Sarah to congratulate her on Obama's win, including the president's cousin, Nelson Obama.
    "Just like everybody else, I'm also equally surprised but again I share my respects and the honour to the Nobel committee who bestowed on Barack for his efforts to keep the whole world a peaceful place for everybody, it is a big quest but his efforts are seemingly seen and appreciated by other people," he said.
    Kenya's environmentalist Wangari Maathai won Nobel Peace prize in 2004 becoming the first African woman to win the prize.
    The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Obama has called for disarmament and worked to restart the stalled Middle East peace process since taking office in January.
    Obama is the third senior U.S. Democrat to win the prize this decade after former Vice President Al Gore won in 2007 along with the U.N. climate panel and Jimmy Carter in 2002. The prize worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.4 million U.S. dollars) will be handed over in Oslo on December 10.
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