President Obama's Grandmother Survives Kenya Car Crash
President Obama's step grandmother, Sarah Obama, is lucky to be alive after the car she was traveling in rolled over in Western Kenya. The 91 year-old woman was on her way to her home to the village of Kogelo Saturday night, when her driver lost control near the Kisumu airport while trying to overtake a truck.
All five passengers, including her two bodyguards, were treated for minor injuries in a nearby hospital, with a hospital spokesperson saying, Mrs. Obama suffered from shock and a number of bruises. After a series of tests she was released two hours later.
"You can see I was not injured save for this small scar on my right hand and I am not even using a walking stick," Obama said.
She says they were incredibly lucky with the outside of the car they were traveling suffered a lot of damage. "God is with me, because if you could have seen the wreckage that we came out of safe, one would wonder," she said.
Sarah Obama, who President Obama calls "Granny," is the second wife of his paternal grandfather. They have visited each other in Kenya and the U.S., a number of times.
In his memoir, Dream from My Father, he described their first meeting when he visited his father's homeland in 1998. In spite of their need to communicate through an interpreter, he indeed expressed his fondness for her.