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In 1988, a young woman picked up her younger brother at the airport in Nairobi in a beat-up VW Beetle. In 2015, he visited again, this time, they rode from the same airport in a custom-built limousine. Welcome to the world of Auma Obama.
She’s a year older than Obama
Auma was born in 1960 in South Nyanza while Barack was born in 1961 in the United States. Auma was the product of a union between Barack Obama Sr and Kezia Aoko, his first wife, while her famous brother was born out of a union between Obama Senior and Stanley Ann Dunham, an American.
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Mind of her own
During a past interview, Auma did not want to talk about her famous brother, and she explained that she preferred to navigate life without the ‘fakeness’ that the ‘Obama tag’ tended to bring out in many. “I get invited to many things just because of the Obama name. I am proud of him-don’t get me wrong- and I appreciate that people get excited about him, but I don’t want to be reduced to that. I won’t tell his story,” she had said, looking a tad irritated.
Father’s betrayal
When her father married his third wife, Auma and her elder brother Malik moved with their new mother and father to Nairobi, a situation that left her floundering after the marriage failed. In And Then Life Happens, A Memoir, she recounts feeling alone and desolate for not having a present mother figure. And she blamed her father for all her troubles. Kezia had relinquished the care of Auma and Malik when her father had remarried. “I felt betrayed by my father, blaming him for not holding the family together, and abandoned by my stepmother,” she said.
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Only girl
Barack Obama Sr had eight children and Auma is the only girl.
Charting her own course
She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Heidelberg, a degree in film studies from the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin and a PhD from the University of Bayreuth. She is also a mother to 21-year-old daughter Akinyi and runs Sauti Kuu, a foundation in western Kenya that empowers the children and youth to find some economic stability.
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She spends her time between Germany and Kenya, fundraising for the foundation and doing public speaking engagements.
