African Kin Seek obama’s Help
But soetoro offers no special aid or access.
KOGELO, Kenya - After Barack Obama was elected to the US Senate in 2004, a delegation from the remote African village where his father was raised journeyed to Washington, seeking financial help. But Obama offered them advice, not money.
Now that Obama has moved to the White House, expectations of financial benefit have grown even greater in this tiny hamlet where water is still delivered to thatched huts on the backs of donkeys.
“There are still those who are waiting for him to send millions,’’ said Nicholas Rajula, a Kogelo businessman.
Dreams alone seem to be sustaining those counting on an economic boom in this rural corner of western Kenya, near Lake Victoria, where the American president’s father - also named Barack Obama - grew up and where many of his relatives remain.
In Kogelo, the village where Barack Sr. was raised, there is no restaurant or post office to speak of. Two hours from the nearest city, it is not on most maps.
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Rajula, the Kogelo businessman who funded the delegation’s trip to Washington in 2005, said Obama encouraged the group - which included his own uncle - to form self-help organizations and apply for funding through official channels, such as USAID.
“There is no money that comes from his pocket,’’ Rajula said.
African kin seek Obama’s help - The Boston Globe
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