UNITED NATIONS: US President Barack Obama’s step grandmother in Kenya, has been awarded United Nations award on education, it was announced on Thursday.

Sarah Obama, the 94-year-old matriarch of the Obama family, received the inaugural Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Education Pioneer Award at the United Nations from 11-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis.

The young actress praised Obama’s “generous spirit,” ‘‘enormous heart that defies boundaries ... (and) passion for education.” Among those whom Sarah Obama has helped are young pregnant girls, AIDS orphans and her stepson — Obama’s father.

According to reports Sarah Obama was the second wife of Obama’s grandfather and helped raise his father, Barack Obama Sr They belong to the Luo tribe and she speaks Luo.

Mr Obama referred to her as ‘Granny’ in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father”, and described meeting her during his 1988 trip to his father’s homeland and their awkwardness as they struggled to communicate. She came to his first inauguration in 2009, and he spoke about his “grandmother” again in his September speech to the UN General Assembly.

Sarah Obama will head to Washington on Thursday and remain in the United States until Nov 25. She is likely to meet the president, but Debra Akello, the executive director of the new Mama Sarah Obama Foundation, said she doesn’t know when “due to security reasons”.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2014