Barack Obama’s step-grandmother suffered minor injuries over the weekend when a car she was travelling in rolled over.
A relative said today that Sarah Obama was traveling to her home in the western Kenya village of Kogelo, when the accident happened Saturday.
He said the vehicle lost control and rolled as the driver attempted to overtake a truck near the Kisumu airport.
Lucky to be alive? Sarah Obama says it was by the grace of God that she came out of the wreck OK, given the condition of the car
The relative asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak for the family.
Sarah Obama, 90, was admitted to Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu, where she was treated for bruises and released about two hours later.
She told Kenyan newspaper The Standard: ‘God is with me, because if you could have seen the wreckage that we came out of safe, one would wonder’.
She added: ‘You can see I was not injured save for this small scar on my right hand and I am not even using a walking stick’.
Sarah Obama is the second wife of Obama’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama.
She said that well-wishes are coming from as far as the U.S. and the Middle East and her answer has always been the same: Hakuna tabu (which is Swahili for ‘no problem’).
Obama referred to her as ‘Granny’ in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, and described meeting her during his 1988 trip to his father’s homeland and their awkwardness as they struggled to communicate.
Barack Obama has visited his Kenyan relatives three times in Kogelo, and his step-grandmother has gone to the U.S. at least three times.
In a 2008 interview she said they are close, although they have to speak through an interpreter.
Kenya has a special regard for President Obama, the son of a Kenyan economist and an American anthropologist.
Children, shops and dozens of minibuses – which carry names in Kenya – are named after the president.
