"I had to sell the car so that I could repay a loan which was overdue, and the bank was on my neck," he told Zenger. However, there are no longer taxi ranks in the town.īicycles and motorcycle taxis, commonly known as bodabodas, are the main mode of transport for the majority of the locals.Īndrew Jumba, 56, was forced to sell off his taxi after things went south. The taxi business, which visitors relied on to make their way around the village, flourished during Obama's time. "Life was good back then, but now we are surviving by the grace of God," he told Zenger. Weloba says he would make $10 a day tending to throngs of visitors during the Obama era but struggles to make $2 today. Visitors vanished, and that is how most businesses died, including mine."ĭennis Weloba, 35, a barber at Nyangoma center, is among the few whose businesses are still operational but are struggling. "After Obama left office, things turned gloomy. "We are back to where we were before the fame," he told Zenger.įor nine years, Kosiele ran a successful grocery store at Nyangoma market, but he shut down his business in 2017 due to what he describes as a "disappointing business environment."
"Initially, this village would be full of foreign dignitaries, government officials, students, tourists, journalists, and researchers, but that is no longer the case," he told Zenger news.Ī Kogelo resident, Humphrey Kosiele, said the community's gains during Obama's era are fast waning due to a lack of foreign visitors. Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Imagesīernard Wendo, a 42-year-old taxi operator at Nyangoma market, said the hype, fame, and international focus on the village vanished after Obama left office, just at it had appeared 16 years ago. The now-deserted Nyangoma market, which acted as the epicenter of the famous village, shows how fortunes have dramatically changed after Obama's exit from the world stage.įormer President Barack Obama waves as he departs the inauguration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It got its first electrical grid and even a police box to cope with the new tourists.īut now - five years after Obama left the White House - the once-bustling, busy village is back to its old sleepy days.The expensive 4X4s and celeb-safari vans full of curious tourists are no more, replaced by the few personal cars and trucks ferrying farm produce to the local market. "Obama's 2006 visit led to Kogelo's transformation, and things got even better when he became president," Johannes Oduor, a village resident, told Zenger news.Īnd as Obama was swept to power in the White House, change started to flow through the tiny village where the last great infrastructure project had been a bridge built in 1930. He donated land for both the village's schools and named them after his son. was every bit as big a man in the village as his son was on the global stage. Local investors flocked to the village, dizzy on the chance to cash in on the gold rush of Obamamania sweeping around the world.īarack Obama Sr. President Barack Obama together with his Kenyan family members during the official opening of the Sauti Kuu Empowerment Center in Kogelo village on Jul 16, 2018.