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The man who dressed Obama when he visted Wajir in 2006

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WAJIR—In 2006 when he visited the country as the Illinois Senator, Barrack Obama made a trip to Wajir where he was crowned as a Somali leader in a traditional white turban.

The man who dressed him was none other than Mzee Mohamed Hassan alias Dukow who made headlines after a photo of him crowning the would-be 44th president of the United States, was released by Hillary Clinton who was battling it out with Obama for the Democratic nomination. Hillary campaign team used the photo to hoodwink American voters that Obama was in fact a Muslim and that he shared a middle name with the leader of the international militant group Al Qaida, Osama Bin Laden who died in 2011 in Pakistan after he was allegedly fallen by bullets fired by the American Special Forces.

“It was wrong to depict the then Senator in the light he was captured in the US media space. To the people of Wajir, Obama did well to embrace the Somali culture and I hope that he adds a visit to Wajir to his itinerary,” Dukow said.
In an interview with WAJIR TIMES in March 2013, Mzee Dukow acknowledged that his short encounter with Obama threw him into the international limelight, but regrets the president did not look back to thank him for defending his campaign team against the onslaught by Hillary’s team.

In 2008 at the height of the acrimonious race to the White House, the photo took a centre stage with Obama camp accusing the Hillary team of “shameful, offensive and fear-mongering”.
“I told the politicians in the US that the dress did not have anything to do with Islam and that it was a normal Somali attire. I dressed the same to the first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta his successor Arab Moi , Mwai Kibaki and many other dignitaries,” he said.

“Somali Muslims want Hillary Clinton’s team to apologise to us as a clan and the old man—retired chief Sheikh Mohamed Hassan Mumin—a senior elder who deserve respect,” Reuters reported community elders as saying, adding that the attire was only accorded to an exceptional guest who visits the community. A number of voluntary staff that were part of Hillary’s campaign team resigned over the matter.

Mzee Dukow, who is a retired paramount chief that served the colonial government, wondered why “Islamic-looking attire” was an issue, saying there were more than a billion people who identified with the religion.
“His (Obama) father was a Muslim and so do millions of Americans,” he added.
The US president will be in Kenya from Friday through to Sunday to attend the 6th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi . The summit will be co-hosted by Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta.

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