~RS~a~RS~worldservice~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~11~RS~){kind=small}
Sarah said that Barack came to Kenya last year but was too busy to spend much time with her.
The Kenyan grandmother of US democratic nominee Barack Obama has told Outlook that she believes that he can make it both to the democratic nomination and to the Presidency.
With Barack's uncle Said Hussein Obama acting as a translator, Sarah Obama told the BBC's Telewa Muliro that it was a bit like a football match.
Listen Listen to Mama Sarah on Outlook
"When there is a football match, you look at the foot of those who are playing," she said, "In this case Barack is determined and the rest is God who can determine.
"But I believe Barack can make it."
Barack Obama was born in 1961, the son of a Kenyan father and American mother who had met at a university in Hawaii.
They split up when Barack was only two. His father returned to Kenya where he became a civil servant in Jomo Kenyatta's independence administration while his mother settled with Barack and a new partner in Indonesia.
Barack had little contact with his father's family - but this hasn't stopped people in his father's district from getting excited by his Presidential bid.
When he was elected to Congress in 2004 a local beer called Senator was nicknamed "Obama" in honour of the Illinois politician.
And "Mama Sarah", as she is known locally, told Telewa that she has followed her grandson's political career with interest - although she herself didn't go to school and had to teach herself to read.
Nowadays she said that her eyesight is failing because of her age so she can only make out the bold type of the headlines and the photographs.
Her grandson - in the headlines most days now due to the primaries in the United States - had visited Kenya virtually unnoticed in 1982 - after his father had died in a car crash - and in 1992 to introduce his wife to his Kenyan family.
Last year, however, he had plenty of attention when he visited in an official capacity - but this meant that he had had little time with the family.
Previous to that, Sarah had visited the States for his inauguration as Senator for Illinois in 2004.
Diplomatically, she said that she could not remember meeting fellow democratic nominee Hilary Clinton when she was in the States, but she could recall being introduced to another significant American political figure.
"The only person she remembers well was George Bush president of US who came over and greeted her," said Said Hussein Obama.
George Bush of course would have understood Mama Sarah's football analogy - though he is more into American football than 'soccer' and stands down at the forthcoming election.
And if Mama Sarah had observed that he had two left feet, then she certainly wasn't saying so.
