Kenya sees an Obama baby boom
Newborns named after U.S. president.
NAIROBI , President
KENYA Obama is leaving a lasting legacy in this East African country: a bumper crop of babies bearing his name.
Many families have named boys born during the president’s visit after Obama, said Eunice Omolo, the maternity ward director at Avenue Group hospital, one of the biggest in Nairobi.
She didn’t have a tally of baby names nationwide, but she tracked 10 Obama infants in her ward since Friday. She was positive more little Obamas would be coming.
“Mothers are interested and inspired to name their babies after the U.S. president, hoping for blessing and success,” she said. “Other mothers have named their girls after Obama’s family in the U.S.”
Some boys get the president’s first or last name, she said. Muslim mothers often add the president’s middle name.
“A Muslim mother named her son Hussein Obama yesterday after delivery,” Omolo said. Obama “has always supported Muslim communities.”
Faith Nyambura, who gave birth Saturday at St. Mary’s Mission Hospital in Nairobi, decided to call her baby boy Blessed Obama.
“I named my boy after President Obama because I’m always inspired by his stories,” she said. “My boy will automatically become a leader of this country someday because he has Obama’s blessing.”
She said the excitement over the president’s visit “reduced my labor pains. I gave birth without any complications and decided to name my child after him.”
The baby names are a sign of the strong link Kenyans feel toward the U.S. president, whose father was Kenyan.
Jael Achieng, 37, gave birth to her third child, a boy, two hours before Obama left the country and named him Thomas Junior Obama.
“I expect my baby Obama to become a great leader like the U.S. president,” she said. “I named him after the president because when his plane landed at the airport, I found myself in labor, and I was rushed to the hospital.”