Simple hotel room where Barack Obama slept

Mombasa, Kenya: Save for a few superficial changes like the a 14-inch LCD TV set hanging on the wall, the interior of room 104, remains largely the same since Barack Obama slept in it 28 years ago.

Those who have read Obama’s Dreams from My Father recall a section in the book on his tour of Mombasa that year when then law student visited the Kenyan coast in search of his Kenyan roots.

Welcome to room 104 at the Lotus Hotel in Mombasa where the world’s most powerful man slept for four days in 1987 while he was on a search for his ancestral roots.

While at the hotel, in his easy camaraderie, Obama made friends with hotel staff, who had no idea that one day he would be the world’s most powerful man. Back then, the US President was largely unknown beyond Chicago legal circles. As a guest of the coastal hotel, he operated on a shoe string budget as he only ate breakfast and opted to eat his lunch and dinner elsewhere.

Lotus Hotel proprietor Zedekiah Nderu recalls that Obama checked into the hotel alone. “Since he was on bed and breakfast, he would only have breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Most times, he ate his lunch and supper outside the hotel,’’ Nderu says.

There are no records that he invited friends or indulged in drinking sprees.

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“We never saw him board a taxi and believed that he walked the streets of Mombasa,’’ Nderu says.

A jovial guest

Room 104 is 9 square metres and comes complete with its toilet, shower, a closet, lounge chair, simple bed, writing table and telephone.

Nderu recalls that during Obama’s stay at the hotel, he developed a likening for one of the hotel managers, a Mr Ouma (who has since left employment).

“Ouma was a native from Luo Nyanza and Obama was extremely interested in stories from that part of Kenya,’’ Nderu remembers.

Nderu says Obama shared with them that he was in the country to look for his kin.

During the visit, Obama was a heavy smoker and carried a rack sack with him anytime he left the hotel.

Interestingly, while most guests who have spent at the hotel have their names and signatures on the visitors’ book, Obama’s name is missing.

Nderu says Obama chose to sign his complements on a card which has since gone missing.

Lotus Hotel is an iconic hospitality joint located in the middle of Mombasa island and along Cathedral Lane, off Nkrumah Road.

Obama visited the hotel during his first visit to Kenya while he was still a student. Today, the hotel’s management wishes he could pay them a visit once again.

The hotel, reputed to be one of oldest in Mombasa is a three-star facility known for its cleanliness.

A walk through this iconic hotel, which was once featured by a humour writer with a leading publication as having cleanest toilets in Mombasa island, reveals an affordable and cosy place.