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International News Title: Sen. Barack Obama Electrifies Kenyans During a visit to his father's homeland, Sen. Barack Obama electrified the thousands of Kenyans who thronged every stop of his tour. Some hoped for promises of largesse, others to bask in the glory of a successful African-American politician, but all wanted to see the man they consider a local kid made good. "Simply by coming here, he was making a very important statement. He was telling all Kenyans, and especially our youth, that the sky is really the limit," columnist Dominic Odipo wrote in Kenya's oldest newspaper, The Standard. This despite the fact that Obama never lived in Africa - he was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his mother, a white American from Kansas - and he barely knew his father, an economist from the western Kenyan village of Nyangoma-Kogelo. Among the hundreds who welcomed the senator at the Kisumu airport, off the shores of Lake Victoria, was one man who declared: "Obama is the first Luo-American senator," referring to Obama's father's tribe. Residents of Nyangoma-Kogelo told local television stations they expected Obama to help them build more classrooms in the local high school - named Sen. Barack Obama Kogelo Secondary School - as well as to build clinics and pave the village's dirt roads. Kenyans almost universally embraced Obama, who was accompanied by an enormous entourage, burly security guards and caravans of four-wheel drive vehicles. They cheered as he railed against their country's high-level corruption and injustice. Officials have even sought to try to use the visit to show how far their country has progressed. Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju said the fact Obama could lecture Kenya on corruption and other issues showed how much things had changed. "We give him police protection, and he makes comments criticizing the government. It is a tribute to the level of freedom we are enjoying. That for me is the greatest achievement" of this trip, Tuju told The Associated Press. Tuju responded to Obama's statement that corruption was a crisis in Kenya and that the government needed to do more by saying, "We can say we have tried our best, but our best is not good enough." When Obama made a policy speech at the state-run University of Nairobi, it was aired live on television, something that usually happens only during official celebrations or when President Mwai Kibaki has an important announcement, such as Cabinet changes. In his speech, Obama touched on themes not normally debated openly in Kenya, such as high-level corruption, the tribal politics that have dominated the country since its 1963 independence from Britain and Kenyans' need to make more demands of their leaders. "Corruption is not a new problem; it's not just a Kenyan or African problem. It's a human problem," Obama said. "While corruption is a problem we all share, here in Kenya it is a crisis robbing an honest people of the opportunities they have fought for and deserve." In the past, government officials have reacted angrily to similar statements made by Nairobi-based foreign diplomats. In policy terms, Kenyans are hoping Obama - the only black U.S. senator - will be a voice for Africa and counter negative perceptions of the continent. "Here's how Obama can help," the Sunday Nation said in an editorial. "There is an emergent Africa, a more confident, smarter, self-reliant Africa. And it is the message of this new Africa that we would like Sen. Barack Obama to take back home with him: It is possible for Africa to pull itself out of the morass, perhaps not overnight, but certainly in our lifetime." For the ordinary person, Obama's story of rising from a humble background to a senator in the world's most powerful nation continues to inspire, particularly after his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "That one can spring from the green, rolling grasslands of Alego," where Obama's ancestral village is located, "to one of the most important offices in the world ... that, indeed, is a priceless message," columnist Odipo wrote. "Even if Obama leaves no dollars in his trail, that simple message will be more than sufficient."
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