Tributes are pouring in for Sarah Obama – the matriarch of the Obama family, who was the step-grandmother of former US President Barrack Obama.

Tributes are pouring in for Sarah Obama – the matriarch of the Obama family, who was the step-grandmother of former US President Barrack Obama.

Sarah Obama died on Monday morning at a hospital in western Kenya with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta eulogizing her as a virtuous woman and an icon of family values.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga hailed the late Mrs. Obama for her leadership after her husband’s death, saying she utilised her grandson’s rise to promote the education of girls and fight social ills through her foundation.

Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o said the late Mrs. Obama was “charming and warm” to everyone who visited her Kogelo village home.

Once a simple country woman, Sarah Obama was for a long time best known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school.

Already a national celebrity after the former Illinois senator Barack Obama visited Kenya in 2006, Sarah’s modest homestead became a tourist attraction with Obama’s November 2008 election triumph.