New hotel for Obama kin’s village

By MATHIAS RINGA mringa@ke.nationmedia.com

Posted Monday, February 7 2011 at 21:00

In Summary

• Establishment being built to cater for people visiting US leader’s roots

A new hotel is being built in Kogelo, a village that became famous after Barack Obama, whose father was born there, became US President in 2008.

The 25-room hotel is part of a government programme to fund the building of hotels in Western and North Eastern provinces to boost tourism.

Kenya Tourist Development Corporation (KTDC) managing director Marianne Jordan said that the parastatal was financing building of the hotel in Kogelo and other tourist facilities.

She said the KTDC planned to lend Sh1.3 billion to tourism investors to upgrade hotels as well as establish new ones.

Mrs Jordan said the KTDC expected to lend Sh600 million to investors in the tourism sector this year.

She said that Sh380 million had already been approved for on-lending to investors wishing to upgrade or build new hotels.

The Treasury had promised to allocate a further Sh700 million for on-lending to tourism investors in the next financial year, she said.

“Apart from lending money to upgrade hotels in various parts of the country, we also target investors who intend to build new ones in emerging tourist circuits,” Mrs Jordan said.

“We targeted Kogelo because a lot of tourists, especially from the US, flock here to see the village where President Obama’s father was born.

“The new hotel is being built a stone’s throw from Mama Sarah Obama’s home by an investor we gave a loan,” she said.

She said the parastatal had tightened lending rules to minimise bad debts.

Saying most establishments at the Coast were in an appalling state, she urged investors to apply for loans to refurbish them.

Tourism minister Najib Balala has in the past also appealed to investors to upgrade their hotels.