Malik Obama, half-brother of former United States president Barack Obama was in Kenya for the funeral and interment of their grandmother, Mama Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama.
It is not yet established whether Malik was in Kenya at the time of the death or that he flew into the country.
He was seen at the hospital where Mama Sarah died and also today he attended her funeral and said an Islamic prayer for the late grandmother.
"What can I say, this is my grandmother and this is where I grew up. I am a Muslim so we don't say too much. As Allah brought us here, so do we go back to him," he remarked before his prayer.
The 99-year-old grandmother's death was reported on Sunday, March 28, 2021; with local media outlets reporting that she died at a referral hospital, the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Referral Hospital in Kisumu County.
In line with the Islamic faith which the deceased was a strong adherent of, she was prayed upon and buried at a cemetery in the town of Kogelo, where she stayed.
The former US president wrote a long tribute to his "beloved" grandmother in which he described her impact on the lives of family relations and on ordinary Kenyans that she came into contact with.
Obama said he was mourning her along with his family. "My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as “Mama Sarah” but known to us as “Dani” or Granny. We will miss her dearly, but we’ll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life," he wrote in a tweet accompanied by a famous photo of him and her in front of a homestead.
Malik and Barack are connected through the same father, Barack Obama Sr. He was born in March 1958 to Obama Sr and his first wife Kezia. He was raised in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Malik Obama mourns Mama Sarah Obama through Islamic prayer.#LeoMashinani pic.twitter.com/M52bVWYZBP
— KTN News (@KTNNewsKE) March 30, 2021
Mama Sarah Obama buried at her home in Kogelo pic.twitter.com/3jXJ2FogCE
— Nation Africa (@NationAfrica) March 30, 2021
