American meets Kenyan dad after 28 years

• Classified advert in the paper reunites media student with her long lost father

The reunion of a Kenyan father and his American daughter after 28 years of separation began with an advert in the newspaper. It ended on Tuesday with the long-estranged pair hugging and sobbing on Moi Avenue, Nairobi.

Passers-by couldn’t help but stare. 

American Tramaine Chelang’at Hugie said she has always dreamed of meeting her father, Mr Anderson Obare Atuya. She knew him only from a photograph of him holding her when she was born.

She had to find him. So when it was time for Ms Chelang’at, who is 28, to find an internship in her field of study — integrated media for international development — she chose to take an assignment in Kenya.

Work in the slums

She arrived in Nairobi in July, and began working in the slums and doing HIV-related projects. But after speaking to some of her father’s old friends from college —where he met her mother, Terri Lea Hugie an African-American — Ms Chelang’at had no leads as to his whereabouts.

Mr Obare is of mixed parentage, his mother being of Kalenjin descent and his father a Kisii. The name Chelang’at originated from Mr Obare’s mother’s clan and was chosen by Tramaine’s mother who had the choice of naming her Moraa.

When Ms Chelang’at could not find her father doubts crept in. She knew he was Kenyan, but after so many years, he could have lived anywhere. But she wasn’t ready to give up, yet. She had to try another tactic.

“Back at home, friends told me many Africans read newspapers,” Ms Chelang’at said.

On Friday, she placed a one-line classified in the Daily Nation that read simply: “Do you know ANDERSON OBARE ATUYA? Baptist College Track Team (USA) 1977/1978.” She was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. She wanted to place a bigger advert, but it was too expensive.

However, it worked. The single-line classified ad led to a flood of phone calls to Mr Obare — who earns a living as a taxi driver taking tourists to visit US President Barack Obama’s father’s village in Kogelo.

After many calls, Mr Obare, 55, went to a friend’s home to see the paper for himself.

Recent events had given him little to feel hopeful about. He retired from government and started a business in Kisumu selling motor vehicle spare parts — but saw his dream of a comfortable life burn to the ground, along with his shop, in the post-election riots.

“I almost became a beggar,” he said.

When he saw the advert, he knew he had to respond. But the contact information for his daughter was an e-mail address. Mr Obare never uses the Internet and did not have an e-mail address.