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Teenage Kezia |
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Kezia was a 16-year-old schoolgirl while Senior, two years older, had just
got his first proper job as an office clerk in Nairobi.
Kezia said: "It was at a dance in Kendu Bay, my home town. Barack
(Senior) was there on holiday with his family. I went to the dance hall with my cousin William and I saw Barack enter
the room. I thought, 'ohhh, wow.' He was so lovely with his
dancing. So handsome and so smart.
"We danced together and then the next day my cousin came to our house
and told me that Barack liked me. It was December, so I was off school. Each day Barack and my
cousin would stop by the house. Every time I looked they were always there, trying to convince me to go
with Barack to Nairobi. About a week later, William and I took Barack to the station. We
were going to say: 'Bye bye, see you next time.' Except there was
no bye bye.
"When the train arrived William and Barack said, 'You are going to
Nairobi.' I went with him."
Her father, a local driver, was furious.
Kezia said: "He did not like Obama. My father and brothers came to
Nairobi to bring me back. They said I had to go back to school. When I wouldn't, they said they would never speak to me again."
"Barack was also worried about what his father (grandfather) would think because I was
so young, but he gave us his approval. He sent my mother and
father 14 cows for my dowry.
Kezia and Senior
were
married in a tribal ceremony in January, 1957, and
set up a home in Jericho, a
section of Nairobi created for government employees, and began a family.
First son Roy was born in March 1958. Kezia insisted: "Barack was a good
husband."
Can you imagine if a Republican was running for
president and it came out that his father had bought his first wife for
14 cows???!!! |
|
Senior Would Still
Go To Kezia |
After Obama Sr.'s return to
Kenya, he fathered two more children by Kezia. [Kids 3 and 4]
The Daily Mail quotes a relative of Obama as saying, "We told him
[Obama] how his father would still go to Kezia and it was during these
visits that she became pregnant with two more children. He also
had two children with Ruth." [Kids 5 and 6]
According to the Daily Mail, even after losing both legs in the car
accident, Obama senior fathered yet another son, his eighth child,
[Okay, they got me, that would only be 7 by my count. Not sure old
BHO, Sr. was keeping a close count either] by yet another woman, and
"continued to come home drunk."
Regardless of the motives, in "Dreams from my Father" Obama never states
precisely how many wives his father had, or how many half-brothers and
-sisters he has from different mothers, whether married to his father or
not. |
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Step
Mother
Kezia |
Keziah Grace Aoko Obama, currently living in Bracknell,
Berkshire, England, is now a 67-year-old grandmother, she more
than anyone
understands the astonishing nature of Barack's success -- and the
vastness of the journey that has been made in the space of one
generation.
She was married to his father, Senior, who would go on to marry two
more women -- Barack Jr.'s mother Ann Dunham, and an American teacher
called Ruth. But it was Kezia who remained his one true love and to whom he always
returned.
Strangely, Kezia and Ann became great friends, writing to each other
often.
Kezia said, "I'm very proud that he wants to include us in his life.
As a family, we are very friendly, very close.
"The family are still very important to him. That would make Senior
very happy.
"We have seen each other many times since that first visit, in the US,
in Kenya and in England. I was very fond of Barack Jr.'s mother, Ann.
"She came to Kenya after Senior died and she and I became great
friends. She was like a sister to me."
Since then, the Obamas have formed an extraordinary bond -- despite
their fractured family history and the vast cultural and geographic
differences.
As well as Auma, Kezia has three sons by Senior Her two youngest,
Bernard and Abo, live in Nairobi.
Bernard sells mechanical parts while Abo runs an international telephone
shop. |
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Ruth |
|
In 1964, Senior married
his third wife, an American-born teacher called Ruth,
who met at Harvard
while still
legally married
to both Kezia and
Ann and who followed him to Africa.
Ruth is the third woman Obama Senior "marries" in
8 years.
Senior had two children with Ruth. Son Mark was born
in 1964 although no month has been given, nor has any date been given
for the marriage of Senior and Ruth.
Kenyan writer, Philip Ochieng ,
Senior's drinking buddy, recalls how, after sitting up all night drinking Black Label
whisky at Nairobi's famous Stanley Hotel, Senior would fly into rages
if Ruth asked where he had been.
Ochieng remonstrated with his friend, saying: "You bring a woman from
far away and you reduce her to pulp. That is not our way."
But it was to no avail. Ruth sued for divorce after her husband
administered brutal beatings.
Ruth refused to comment on the abuse charges when we tracked her down to
the Kenyan school where she now works.
She said: "I was married to Barack's father for seven years so, yes, you
could say Barack is my stepson.
"Barack's father was a very difficult man. Although I was
married to him the longest of any of his wives he wasn't an easy person
to be around." |
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Jael |
So far, Jael is a mystery woman. She is
only mentioned as the mother of Obama's half-brother, George.
Jael, was Senior's mistress. Obama Sr. hooked up with her after
his divorce from Ruth. Stories say he planned on marrying her
before he died in a car accident.
Jael now lives in
Atlanta, GA. |
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©
Copyright Beckwith 2009
All right reserved
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