‘OBAMAVILLE’ TO GET NEW HOTEL
The paternal home village of US President Barack Obama, located near Kenya’s lakeside city of Kisumu, is due to get a 25 bedroom hotel built, after the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation has agreed to co-finance the project with an investor.
Kogelo has risen to instant fame when Obama won the last presidential elections in the United States, as his late father came from Nyanza province. Blood relatives of Obama still live in Kogelo and the wider neighbourhood of that village and he himself has visited his late father’s homestead on previous visits to Kenya, the last one while a member of the US Senate.
The planned hotel will undoubtedly facilitate more visitors to come and stay overnight at the location, instead of doing day visits and excursions from Kisumu itself. The lake side city is well connected with the capital Nairobi by air with Kenya Airways, Fly540 and Jetlink while road and rail transport are also available to reach Kisumu, making it easy for travellers to ‘do a quick side trip’ and see where the current US President has his other ‘roots’, besides his late mother’s home state of Hawaii that is.
Several tour companies, located in both Kisumu and Nairobi, have regular ‘tours’ available to visit Kogelo, particularly for visitors from the US but interesting enough also for tourists from other parts of the world. The new hotel will be built in the immediate vicinity of the compound where several of Obama’s relatives live and farm, giving guests of the hotel ‘direct’ shoulder rubbing with the paternal family of the US president, but without the hassles of the US Secret Service’ forbidding presence. GO VISIT.
