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Ten things that make ‘Uncle Barrack’ human

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 Uncle Barry "Check this out"

He will go down in history as one of those people who rose to the highest political office in the world from the most unlikely of quarters and circumstances. Being the head honcho of the only superpower in the world is no joke, or mean feat. The life legacy of President Barack Obama is there for historians to have a field day, but there are things that truly make the father of Malia and Sasha human, like you and me. Here goes:

1. Anger translator

White House Correspondent’s Dinner is usually a light event where the US President cracks jokes and tickles the ribs of members of the Fourth Estate. During this year’s event in April, Obama surprised everyone when “anger translator” Luther (played by Keegan-Michael Key) joined him on stage. Luther would contort his face and bulge his eyes in an apparent translation of Obama’s inner anger. This unprecedented show had everyone bent over with laughter.

2. Kissing another man’s chick A man next to President Obama joked “don’t touch my girlfriend” at a voting booth in Chicago during midterm elections in 2014. Obama casually replied, “I really wasn’t planning to”, after which the girlfriend begs her man to “please excuse him.” Obama then strolled to the girl, embraced and kissed her cheek. The incident captured world headlines.

3. Michelle feels ‘kimnatho!’ Remember a furious looking Michelle Obama squeezing between Obama and the gorgeous Danish Premier, Helle-Thorning Schmidt after the two leaders appeared too cosy with each other during a selfie moment alongside then British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Mandela’s funeral in December 2013?

4. Umeona ‘udongo’ ya huyo m-she? A video emerged showing Obama and the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy sizing up the eyeing-catching udongo of a Brazilian delegate, Mayara Tavarez, during a 2009 G8 Summit in Italy. White House explained the images were wrongly juxtaposed and that Obama was looking at another man outside the photo. But the picture trended for a long time.

5. Man for the ladies Obama once came out of a military helicopter during a downpour and held an umbrella for two ladies, leaving his shoulders exposed in June 2015.

6. ‘Gota, mtu nguyas’ Despite him being the leader of free world and the most powerful man on planet Earth, Obama still strives to remain true to his roots as displayed when he fist-bumped (kugota) with a janitor as he walked across a hallway in Hotel Cartagena, Colombia in March 2011.

7. ‘Mimi huenda kinyozi’ When five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia visited the White House in May 2009, he was so awed by Obama that he never thought he was a mortal black man. To prove the boy wrong, the President bent so that Philadelphia could touch his hair and see “whether it feels like mine”. The photo still hangs in the White House West Wing seven years on.

8. First ‘orezo’ ‘behind bars’ In July 2015, Obama became the first sitting US President to go behind bars, literally, when he visited El Reno Prison in Oklahoma in his bid to reform the American criminal justice system. He chatted with six inmates. There are more than two million Americans in prison, mostly blacks and Hispanics.

9. ‘Niko fiti, budaa!’ During a White House egg-rolling event, the lean and fit Obama accepted a challenge from a basketball team, went on all fours and did 13 push-ups in one count. Since it was during the 2012 presidential race, many commentators wondered “how many challenger Mitt Romney could count!”

10. Dealing with heckling hustlers Since coming to power, Obama has had several encounters with hecklers. Like during the LGBT Pride Month at the White House in July this year. The President swiftly put down a shouting heckler with: “Hold on sir. You know what? no, no, no. Listen, you are in my house and it’s not respectful,” he commanded. “It’s not respectful when you get invited by somebody...shame on you!” he reprimanded the heckler.

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