Topline
Auma Obama, a Kenyan activist and half-sister of former President Barack Obama, spoke through tears and struggled to breathe during a CNN interview Tuesday after she was tear-gassed during a protest in the country that ultimately saw more than a dozen people killed.
Key Facts
Auma Obama told CNN she'd attended the protest in her home country of Kenya to support young demonstrators in Nairobi who spoke against a plan to raise taxes for millions of people amid high inflation and an already high cost of living (the bill was later withdrawn).
Obama, the daughter of Barack Obama Sr. and his first wife, Grace Kezia, was born in Kenya the year before her famous half-brother was born in Hawaii (the former president’s mother was Barack Obama Sr.’s second wife, Ann Dunham).
She was raised in Kenya with an older brother and earned her master’s degree and doctorate while on scholarship at universities in Germany.
It wasn’t until the 1980s, when she was in her 20s, that she first met Barack Obama, the Financial Times reported—she later attended his inaugurations to both the Senate and the presidency and the former president met with his sister while on a visit to Kenya in 2015.
Before moving back to Kenya with her then-young daughter to serve as the East Africa Coordinator for Care International in 2007, she worked as a journalist, lecturer and political consultant in Germany and the United Kingdom.
Auma Obama founded the Sauti Kuu Foundation, also called the Auma Obama Foundation, in 2010, which helps disadvantaged children and their families connect with local resources addressing education and vocational training with the goal of allowing them to "lead financially self-sufficient and self-sustaining lives."
The foundation's Sauti Kuu Act Now Awards honors people between the ages of 12 and 25 who've dedicated a portion of their lives to social, humanitarian and environmental projects.
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Tangent
Auma Obama has served as a member or board member of nearly a dozen humanitarian organizations aside from her own. She has been a member of the World Future Council, a group that works to spread the word about effective environmental policies and ideas, since 2014. She is a member of the governing council of the Kilimanjaro Initiative in Nairobi, a group that works to allow underprivileged youth to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and is patron of the international Storymoja Festivals in Kenya, a five-day literacy festival that promotes storytelling and works to promote reading and writing in Africa. She also serves as a board member of the Stiftung Lesen, or German Reading Foundation, another literacy promotion program, and is a member of the advisory board of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies at the University of Bayreuth, her alma mater in Germany.
Crucial Quote
"He cares. He checked in," Obama tweeted about her half-brother after she’d been tear-gassed on Tuesday.
Surprising Fact
Obama competed on "Let's Dance," the German equivalent of "Dancing with the Stars." She finished in fifth place.
Key Background
Protests erupted at parliament in Kenya Tuesday as citizens demanded lawmakers vote against a bill that would have imposed new taxes on the country, which is struggling under a cost of living crisis. Protesters sent parliamentarians fleeing after burning part of the government building and 13 demonstrators were killed, the BBC reported. Kenyan President William Ruto called in military reinforcements to quell the protests and called the events "treasonous" before vowing to end the unrest “at whatever cost.” The bill was withdrawn from consideration on Wednesday, CNN reported. Ahead of the protests, lawmakers had made edits to the unpopular measure and dropped some of the most contentious proposals—like a 16% sales tax on bread and 25% duty on cooking oil—but other provisions remained, including a plan to tax goods used to build and equip specialized hospitals and raise import taxes from 2.5% to 3%.