Ph.d. David Kagima

110 Year Old Father: Dreams, Hope & Triumph . . . from Barack Obama's Motherland Ph.d. David Kagima

This year my father is 111. The world's oldest man, 113-year-old World War I veteran Henry Allingham, died Saturday July 18, 2009. It was reported by AP that he spent his final years reminding Britain about the 9 million soldiers killed during the conflict. My father was a teenager during the war given that he was born around 1898. His age was estimated based on the arrival of the first airplane into Kenya, the great cassava famine, the First World War and his 'riika' or his circumcision age group. My paternal grandfather married three wives and my father was a son of the first wife. My paternal grandmother lived to be 125. None of my father's age mates that he grew up with are alive today. Like his mother, father and grandfather, he has never visited a modern hospital and by no means popped modern-day medicines in his body. He has been blessed and healthy throughout his entire life. For many years, my father labored to raise a family of thirty children, three wives, numerous grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren and most recently, a great-great-great granddaughter!