First Lady Michelle Obama has explained her negative experience to Kenya that may explain why did not accompany her husband in the past two visits he has made to the country.
In her new memoir, Becoming, she says that when Barack Obama first brought her to Kenya, she was frustrated, sad, and ended up being angry at her husband for bringing her to the continent.
Auma Obama
While Barack has reminisced and even joked about his sisterAuma Obama’s VW bettle which picked them up from JKIA, Michelle recalls hustle and inconvenience that the whole experience caused her – even staining her new white sneakers.
“Auma’s sky-blue VW was so old that it often needed to be pushed in order to get the engine into gear. I’d ill-advisedly bought new white sneakers to wear on the trip, and within a day, after all the pushing we did, they’d turned reddish brown, stained with the cinnamon-hued dust of Nairobi,” she writes.
She adds that the connection she had expected to make with Africa on account of her race was not present -making her irritable.
Mama Sarah Obama
“For every bit of awe we felt in Kenya, we were also tired, which led to quibbling, which led finally, for whatever reason, to rage. “I’m so angry at Barack,” I wrote in my journal. “I don’t think we have anything in common.” My thoughts trailed off there. As a measure of my frustration, I drew a long emphatic gash across the rest of the page,” Michelle goes on, adding it was the first time they were learning to have couple fights.
She, however, notes that she enjoyed the company of her in-laws after they later travelled to Kisumu to Mama Sarah Obama (Barack’s grandmother)’s home.
“I remember feeling awed by the scope of land and sky around me and at the same time snug and protected inside that tiny home. I had a new job, a fiancé, and an expanded family - an approving Kenyan granny, even,” the former US First Lady recalls.