Kogelo’s rapid facelift after Obama becomes president

Kogelo Village was described by US President Barack Obama during his inauguration as the “small village where my father was born”, but to residents it is no longer a simple matter.

The once sleepy village has been catapulted into the international limelight, in proportions beyond its wildest dreams.

Already the elders in Kogelo want to have the names of a primary school and a secondary school named after Senator Barack Obama changed to reflect his new status.

Senator Obama Kogelo primary and secondary schools were so named following Mr Obama’s 2006 visit. The elders contend that the names have been overtaken by events.

“The community sent representatives to the US to plead with Mr Obama to authorise the change of names,” an elder Mzee Ogombe told the Nation. The community wants to replace “Senator” with “President”.

Siaya county council chairman Aggrey Onyango, under which Kogelo falls, welcomed the development saying the government meant well. “We accept any development coming up. It is our hope and prayer that more projects will come and we shall welcome them,” he said.

The transformation that began soon after Obama won is far from over, with dozens of government projects on the ground.

Already, the road leading to the homestead that was once many a driver’s nightmare whenever it rained has been cleared and gravelled. It leads to the Kisumu-Bondo road at Ndori junction. There are plans to tarmac the road.

Before he died in a plane crash last year, Roads minister Kipkalya Kones commissioned the tarmacking of Siaya-Bondo and Siaya-Rang’ala roads that pass next to Kogelo at a cost of Sh1.8 billion. The contractor, Associated Company, has already moved to site.

And only two days after Mr Obama’s historic win, Kenya Power and Lighting Company connected electricity to his ancestral home and by extension, to the villagers, making it a model rural electrification programme.

The village is in complete contrast to what Mr Obama visited in 2006 as a senator. The potholes that made his trip in 2006 unbearable have all gone.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has also moved in, with the Kogelo Community Water and Sanitation project, implemented by the Lake Victoria South Water Services Board that will provide Kogelo with piped water.

The board’s managing director, Mr Michael Ochieng’, said Sh6 million would be spent in the initial phase — a six-kilometre radius.

Besides the Siaya municipal council has a grant of Sh5 million from EU to expand water supply in the village. Siaya mayor James Otare is confident that this will spell an end to the chronic water shortage in the municipality.

In the period following Mr Obama’s election, Tourism minister Najib Balala led a team to visit Mama Sarah. While there, Mr Balala announced plans to put up a museum in Kogelo in honour of the 44th US president.

And with the much-talked about opening of the Western tourism circuit, Mr Obama’s ascension of the presidency will boost the industry.

The museum

The Nyang’oma Kogelo community has identified a 20-acre plot — about a kilometre away from where Mama Sarah Obama lives — where the ministries of Tourism and National Heritage will put up the Obama Cultural Centre that will host the museum, a library, a 3,000-capacity auditorium and a leadership centre, according to community leader Vitalis Ogombe.