Siaya is a small district headquarters in Luo Nyanza, western Kenya. The town itself is unremarkable — a market, some shops, dusty streets — but the surrounding area has a claim to fame: Kogelo village, about 30 km away, is the ancestral home of the Obama family. Barack Obama's father grew up here, and the village received considerable international attention during his presidency. A small community centre and the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School mark the connection.
Beyond the Obama link, Siaya is Luo heartland. The area is flat, agricultural, and overlooked by most travellers, but it gives a sense of rural Kenyan life away from the safari circuit.