by Sally Jacobs
32 M. F. McKeon (immigration inspector), memo, April 28, 1964. Contained in Obama’s INS file.
33 M. F. McKeon, memo, May 19, 1964.
34 David D. Henry, letter to Barack H. Obama, May 27, 1964. The letter is contained in Obama’s “A” file
35 “Memo for File,” June 18, 1964, signed by Dep. Sec. Mulrean, Boston. Contained in Barack Obama’s “A” file.
36 From Ruth Ndesandjo interview, April 7, 2010.
37 Barack H. Obama Curriculum Vitae. Contained in Obama’s personnel file, held by the Kenyan Ministry of Planning, National Development and Vision.
38 E. Golden (immigration inspector), memo, August 28, 1964. Contained in Obama’s “A” file.
CHAPTER 7
1 “There’s No Need To Get Lost!” The Nation, May 8, 1964.
2 Republic of Kenya, Statistical Abstract 1967, Nairobi Government Printer, 1967, p. 14. Figures from Population Census of 1962, as published in Cherry J. Gertzel, Maure Leonard Goldschmidt, and Donald S. Rothchild, eds., Government and Politics in Kenya; A Nation Building Text (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1969), 22.
3 Jim C. Harper, Western-Educated Elites in Kenya, 1900–1963: The African American Factor (New York: Routledge, 2006), 124. Harper says there were less than five hundred with degrees from overseas at the time of independence. One year later dozens more had returned from attending college overseas, putting the figure at close to six hundred.
4 From Mwaura Ngari interview.
5 From Leo Odera Omolo interview.
6 David Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1982), 139. Goldsworthy characterizes Ayodo’s relationship to Mboya as close.
7 Jared Onono, interview with author, February 2010.
8 From Ezra Obama and Charles Oluoch interviews. Both men discuss the importance of a lady’s legs in general and Ruth’s legs in particular.
9 From Leo Odero Omolo interview.
10 From Jared Onono and Peter Aringo interviews.
11 Celia Nyamweru, “Letting the Side Down: Personal Reflections on Colonial and Independent Kenya,” in Global Multiculturalism: Comparative Perspectives on Ethnicity, Race, and Nation, ed. Grant Hermans Cornwell and Eve Walsh Stoddard (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 185.
12 Andrew Hake, African Metropolis: Nairobi’s Self-Help City (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977), 74.
13 Certificate of Marriage, Nairobi Registrar’s Office, 1964, no. 47. A copy of the certificate is in the case file of Succession Cause No. 233 of 1985 in the Nairobi High Court in Nairobi.
14 Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya, 216.
15 Bethwell A. Ogot and William Robert Ochieng, eds., Decolonization & Independence in Kenya, 1940–93 (London: J. Curry, 1995), 85.
16 Norman Miller and Rodger Yeager, Kenya: The Quest for Prosperity (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), 31.
17 Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya, 248. Goldsworthy describes Mboya’s state of mind about the job as well as how others regarded the appointment.
18 Gertzel et al., Government and Politics in Kenya, 349.
19 “African Socialism and Its Application to Planning in Kenya,” Sessional Paper no. 10, Statement by the President, copy available in the Kenya National Archives.
20 Dharam Ghai, “African Socialism for Kenyans,” East Africa Journal, June 1965, 17–19.
21 Barack H. Obama, “Problems Facing Our Socialism,” East Africa Journal , July 1965, 29.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid., 33.
25 Ibid.
26 David W. Cohen, “Perils and Pragmatics of Critique: Reading Barack Obama Sr.’s 1965 Review of Kenya’s Development Plan” March 2010, an unpublished paper prepared for the University of Cape Town and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, p. 8. This quotation comes from comments Cohen presented to the journalist David Remnick on April 15, 2009, and included in the paper cited here. Quoted here with the permission of the author.
27 Ibid., 27.
28 From David Cohen interview.
29 East Africa Journal, April 15, 1966.
30 Miller and Yeager, Kenya, 40.
31 From Kevin Abiero and Leo Odera Omolo Erastus Amondi Okul interviews.
32 From Wilson Ndolo Ayah and Ruth Ndesandjo (April 2010) interviews.
33 From Kezia Obama interview.
34 Harvard University registrar, letter to Barack H. Obama, November 16, 1965. Contained in Obama’s “A” file.
35 Herufi is the Swahili word for “statistics.”
36 “Historical Facts of Banking in Kenya & The Central Bank of Kenya” (Central Bank of Kenya), 16.
37 From Duncan Ndegwa interview.
38 Ibid.
CHAPTER 8
1 From Dr. Marty Singer interview.
2 From Florence Pressman interview.
3 “Boards, Agendas and Minute Meetings,” Kenya Tourist Development Corporation (KTDC), December 14, 1967, AHC/3/12, Kenya National Archives.
4 “Boards Agendas and Meetings,” Draft Annual Report of the KTDC, December 1969, AHC/3/12, Kenya National Archives. This document provides an overview of the tourism development corporation and notes many of Kenyatta’s remarks about the industry.
5 Andrew Hake, African Metropolis: Nairobi’s Self-Help City (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977), 257.
6 Auma Obama, Das Leben kommt immer dazwischen (Cologne, Germany: Bastei Lubbe GmbH & Co. KG, 2010), 28.
7 Ibid., 27.
8 From Ruth Ndesandjo interview (April 2010).
9 From Kezia Obama interview.
10 High Court of Kenya at Nairobi, P&A No. 233 of 1985, ruling issued 1989. This document is included in the files concerning both Succession Cause 233 of 1985 and Succession Cause 63 of 1990.
11 Jomo Kenyatta, Suffering without Bitterness: The Founding of the Kenya Nation (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Publishing House, 1968), 343.
12 Susanne D. Mueller, “Government and Opposition in Kenya 1966-9,” Journal of Modern African Studies 22, no. 3 (September 1984): 408.
13 Ibid., 415.
14 Bethwell A. Ogot and William Robert Ochieng, eds., Decolonization & Independence in Kenya, 1940–93 (London: J. Curry, 1995), 101.
15 David Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1982), 267.
16 Ibid., 274.
17 Republic of Kenya, Central Bureau of Statistics Economic Survey, June 1966, p. 52, table 36, Kenya National Archives.
18 W. P. Gamble, Tourism and Development in Africa (London: Murray, 1989), 32–34.
19 “Boards Agendas and Meetings,” Draft Annual Report of the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, December 1969, AHC/3/12,, p. 6, Kenya National Archives.
20 All references to the terms of Obama’s employment at the KTDC come from “Boards, Agenda and Minutes,” KTDC executive committee meeting, September 8, 1967, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 27/67/EC. Kenya National Archives.
21 “Tourism Officer on Drinks Charge,” The Daily Nation, November 4, 1967.
22 Minutes of the fifth meeting of the KTDC executive committee, June 18, 1968, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 14/68, p. 3, Kenya National Archives.
23 “Boards Agendas and Meetings,” Draft Annual Report of the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, December 1969, AHC/3/12, pp. 4–5, Kenya National Archives.
24 Ibid., 3.
25 Joseph P. B. M. Ouma, Evolution of Tourism in East Africa: 1990–2000 (Nairobi, Kenya: East African Literature Bureau, 1970), 103.
26 Minutes of the fifth meeting of the KTDC executive committee, June 18, 1968, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 14/68, p. 3, Kenya National Archives.
27 Minutes of the sixth meeting of the KTDC executive committee, August, 13, 1968, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 26/68, p. 5, Kenya National Archives.
28 Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya, 279.
29 “Mboya Murder Defence Evidence Today,” The Daily Nation, September 9, 1969, 1, 24.
30 Hilary Ng’weno, “Thomas Joseph Odhiam
bo Mboya’s Murder and the Return of One-Party State,” Afro Articles, December 7, 2007, http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard/Article/Thomas-Joseph-Odhiambo-Mboya-s-murder—-the-return-of-one-party-State /62356.
31 “Mboya Murder Defence Evidence Today.”
32 From Caroline Elkins interview.
33 Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya, 284.
34 From Susan Mboya interview.
35 Peter Firstbrook, The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family (London: Preface Publishing, 2010), 218.
36 David William Cohen and E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, The Risks of Knowledge: Investigations into the Death of the Hon. Minister John Robert Ouko in Kenya, 1990 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004), 5.
37 From “Anonymous” interview.
38 E. S. Atieno Odhiambo, “Ethnic Cleansing and Civil Society in Kenya, 1969–1992,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 22, pt. 1 (2004): 29–42.
39 John R. Nellis, The Ethnic Composition of Leading Kenyan Government Positions (Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1974), 14–15.
40 Minutes of the second meeting of the Kenya Tourist Development Corporation, May 4, 1970, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 13/70, Kenya National Archives.
41 Ibid.
42 Minutes of the first meeting of the executive appointments committee of the KTDC, May 11, 1970, AHC/3/12, Minute no. 1/70, Kenya National Archives.
43 Minutes of the second meeting of the KTDC executive committee, June 15, 1970, AJ/2/8, Minute no. E5/70(b), Kenya National Archives.
44 From Nyaringo Obure interview.
CHAPTER 9
1 Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Random House, 1995), 215.
2 From Ruth Ndesandjo interview (February 2010).
3 B. Obama, Dreams from My Father, 65.
4 Ibid., 66.
5 Ibid., 68.
6 Auma Obama, Das Leben kommt immer dazwischen (Cologne: Germany: Bastei Lubbe GmbH & Co. KG, 2010), 27.
7 Ibid., 63.
8 Ibid., 64.
9 Barack Obama [Sr.], letter to the Ministry’s personnel officer March 11, 1978, Barack Obama’s personnel file, held by the Ministry of Planning, National Development and Vision.
10 A. Obama, Das Leben kommt immer dazwischen, 72.
11 Ibid., 72.
12 B. Obama, Dreams from My Father, 217.
13 David Kariuki and Blamuel Njururi, “M.P.s Demand Full Probe into J.M.’s Murder,” The Daily Nation, March 14, 1975, 4.
14 Norman Miller and Rodger Yeager, Kenya: The Quest for Prosperity (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), 52.
15 From Harris Mule interview.
16 Y. F. O. Masakhalia, letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, November 14, 1975, Barack Obama personnel file.
17 Joseph K. Muriungi, letter to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning’s personnel officer, February 15, 1978. Contained in Barack Obama’s personnel file.
18 Ministry of Finance and Planning records, National Archives in Nairobi, folios 104 through 110.
19 Y. F. O. Masakhalia, memo, August 6, 1976, Barack Obama Personnel File.
20 Obama wrote dozens of memos about the project that are contained in the Ministry of Finance and Planning records, Nairobi National Archive, folios 18, 31. Details of the project are spelled out in two specific memos:“Brief on the Kenya-Sudan Road Link,” prepared by Obama for Harris Mule, May 28, 1979, EPD/A/132/79/01; and “Brief on Kenya/ Sudan Joint Projects,” prepared by Obama, September 12, 1980, EPD/A/132/79/01.
21 David. K Leonard, African Successes: Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural Development (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 1, 69.
22 From Johnson M. Hungu interview.
23 Barack Obama, memo to the Ministry’s Personnel supervisor, November 3, 1977, Barack Obama personnel file.
24 From Owino Okongo interview.
25 Leonard, African Successes, 202.
26 Jael Atieno testimony, April 1989, Succession Cause No. 233, High Court of Kenya.
27 Ibid.
28 That Obama might have met with foul play on the night of his death is a view shared by many family members. It was discussed in detail in interviews with Hawa Auma, W. E. Obama Kobilo, Ezra Obama, Charles Oluoch, and Amir Otieno Orinda.
29 William Onyango, “Economic Planning Man Dies in Crash,” The Nairobi Times, November 30, 1982, 5.
30 Certificate of Death No. 109369, Nairobi, Kenya. This document is available in the files of Succession Cause No. 233 in the High Court of Kenya.
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