Kenya Celebrates Barack Obama Victory

It’s been well over 100 years since America had a president who had a parent born in a country outside of the United States. With modern communications it’s now easy to follow the story in the old country with Internet editions of local newspapers. In Kenya, both the Daily Nation and the Standard are full of election coverage, including coverage of Barack Obama’s large family in Africa. The Standard has a very interesting story about not only Barack Obama’s father--a citizen of Kenya--but also his grandfather, and great-grandfather

Thursday has been declared a holiday in Kenya in Barack Obama’s honor, and his family is celebrating and making plans to go to Washington to attend the swearing in. Grandma Sarah is waiting for a phone call which she expects shortly. "We will plan how to attend the vital celebrations in the US," Sarah said at her home in Nyangoma, Kogelo village.

The Obama family has a major new benefit in their village. As they celebrated, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company showed up at the family home as it was installing electricity to the village.