From The Times
November 3, 2008
Kenya, ancestral home of Barack Obama, is in the grip of US election fever

Rob Crilly in Kogelo, Kenya

The tiny Kenyan farmstead where Barack Obama's father grew up herding goats has had a makeover fit for a President.

Where once the goats roamed freely across a field of thick grass studded with mango trees, a security fence and imposing gate keep the animals in and intruders out.

Road rollers and bulldozers have been deployed this past week — days after Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister, made a surprise visit — smoothing out the rutted dirt track leading to the Obama family land.

Speaking in front of the first handful of journalists to have made the journey to the far west of Kenya, Abongo Malik Obama, Mr Obama's half-brother, summed up the excitement of a watching nation. He said that the world would benefit from an Obama in the White House, not just his relatives or tribemates.


How America's presidents rated

The Times has ranked all 42 US presidents - was Bush Jr. bottom? Did JFK beat Abraham Lincoln?
Related Links






He went on: “Here is a man who nobody would have thought could be President of the United States. His success shows that anybody with his background and origins can do it. There's no limitations.”

If Obama-mania has swept across the world, then the bustling city of Kisumu, just an hour's drive from Mr Obama's ancestral home, must be its epicentre.

Stalls in the city's sprawling market are crammed with wonky photocopied portraits offered for sale in cheap frames. Clothes shops have run out of T-shirts printed up for the American elections.

For the past four years Kenyans have been enthralled by the meteoric rise of a politician born to one of their own. His homecoming two years ago brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets of Kisumu. Even then no one could have believed he would come this close to the White House.

Kenya's coverage of the campaign has been extensive and the pundits all predict a landslide. Tomorrow the shops will shut as the country celebrates.

“On the day we will be having a celebration,” says Kogode, a member of a political club that meets under a lilac-blossomed jacaranda tree each afternoon. “We will be slaughtering a goat, having some beer and holding an event. Of that there is no doubt.”

The local airport is being renovated, leading to jokes that it is being designed to accommodate Air Force One. An enterprising tour operator is offering Obama safaris, driving visitors up to the gates of the simple farmstead where his father grew up and where his step-grandmother still lives, and in the capital, Nairobi, a musical of Mr Obama's life story is reopening. In Kisumu, Charles Omondi's rickety wooden bench is filled with “success cards”. On the outside they carry the image of Mr Obama and the Stars and Stripes; inside they wish students “all the best in your forthcoming exams”.

“The idea is that everyone wants to be like him,” Mr Omondi said. “His example will help them pass.” It is the same story across town, where Donna Otieno sells T-shirts at the Our Joint Boutique. She bought a test batch of five and sold them in two days, prompting her to fill her rails with Obama T-shirts bearing the legend “Pride of Kenya”.

“Here is the origin of Obama,” she said. “He's our son and we are very proud.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5068714.ece