Obama anniversary fete hit by lack of funds

A cultural festival planned to commemorate President Barrack Obama’s one year in office on Wednesday at his father’s ancestral home in Kogello has been hit by a cash crisis.

The organisers of the event led by Kogelo councillor Okeyo Omedo who is also the chairman of the celebrations steering committee said although they had forwarded a Sh1 million funding proposal to the Ministry of Culture, they had only received Sh 50,000.

“As a result of the financial constrains, we have been forced to cut the planned one-week celebrations to four days and also do away other events,” Mr Omedo said.

The councillor said he was forced to organise a fund-raising that only raised Sh 30,000 while the local MP, Mr Edwin Yinda, contributed Sh20,000.

Sponsors

However, when contacted the Siaya district cultural officer, Mr Tom Masanga, played down the issue saying he was optimistic sponsors would support the event that is expected to be attended by US ambassador Michael Ranneberger.

“We have contacted a number of sponsors who include leading corporations and we expect they are going to support the celebrations,” he said.

Mr Masanga said several activities had been lined up during the four-day celebrations that include exhibition of local artefacts, cultural dancers, musical bands and football matches.

“In fact we have a delegation from Uganda comprising of Luo elders, and a football team will participate in the events that kicked-off on Sunday and are expected to go on until Thursday,” he said.

Among the groups participating in the event include Kochia traditional dancers from South Nyanza, where President Obama has extended family members, Nyatiti dancers, Ohangla groups, Ana kwa Ana drama group and several musical bands.

A senior cultural officer from the Ministry of Culture, Mrs Dorcas Odege, also down played the issue of lack adequate financial resources for the events saying the scaling down of the one-week long celebrations to four days was meant to give local residents enough time to attended to their farms.

Mrs Odege said unlike last year’s event, this year’s celebrations had been tailored to involve more of community participation.

The Siaya DC Boaz Cherutich, confirmed that Mr Ranneberger would attend the main celebrations on Wednesday.