African Americans in the SenateKenya's Barack Obama won a landslide in Illinois and is just the third black American elected to the US Senate. Rob Crilly recently visited his village
The last time Barack Obama visited his family village he travelled around Kenya on rickety matatu minibuses, helped to fetch water, and slept in a straw-covered hut.
Having just beaten Republican Alan Keyes to take for the Democrats the Senate seat of retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald, Senator Obama will be feted as a hero when he returns to the village, perhaps later this month. Kenyan politicians will queue to be photographed with the rising star of the Democratic Party and he will travel with a security service detail.
The east African country has been electrified by the Senate race ever since Mr Obama, son of a respected Kenyan economist, delivered the keynote speech at the Democratic conference in August. He spoke about how his father herded goats and went to school in a tin-roofed shed.
But the next time Barack Obama visits the village of Nyangoma Kogalo he will find Kogalo Secondary School no longer exists - in its place Barack Obama Secondary School.
Inside the brick staff room, Pastor Jared Walog, the deputy principal, beams with pride as he outlines the plan. "The governors are agreed, the teachers are agreed, the villagers, the children - everyone," he says.
Each of the 300 barefoot children outside when I visited seemed to know the name of the man being touted as a future president. "Barack Obama - he is the man who is going to take care of America," says one.
As the children head home for their midday meal they follow a path through the Obama compound, a collection of brick huts set among thick grass and broad-leaved mango trees. It stands at the end of six miles of rutted, dirt road in Nyanza province, western Kenya. The family land covers about 30 acres - a big estate by local standards. Sweet potatoes and beans thrive in the fertile soil but this year's maize has been hit hard by drought.
Ms Sarah Hussein Obama, the new senator's 83-year-old step-grandmother, has got used to welcoming visitors from the American media to her two-room hut. She pulls out envelopes packed with photographs of the two visits that Barry, as the family calls him, has made.
"When he came for the first time, it was to see the grave of his father and I was very pleased because, for someone who was born over there and spent all his time over there, it was impressive to see him identify so much with this place," she says in Luo, the language of her tribe.
His father, also known as Barack Obama, left the village after winning a scholarship to study in Hawaii, where he met his American wife. However, the couple separated while their son was a toddler. Mr Obama Snr went on to study at Harvard, before returning to Kenya, and only saw his young son once more. He died in a car crash in 1982.
Now the family hopes the prodigal son, now a US senator, will lay down permanent roots in Kenya by building a traditional homestead in the village.
His uncle, Mr Said Hussein Obama, explains: "In line with Luo traditions we would like him to build a simba - just really a cottage - because it means he is a part of the family and any time he comes here then he has somewhere to stay. He also knows that whenever he is away he always has that link with his home."
The Kenyan press has been rife with rumours of triumphant homecomings. Commentators have labelled Mr Obama the Tiger Woods of American politics, for his ability to unite races and brush aside long-standing party political divisions. And, at 42, he has plenty of time to mount an assault on the White House. In Kenya, too, says his uncle, he represents a fresh start. He is seen as a new breed of leader in a country where politics has become a byword for corruption and tribal manoeuvring.
"We are not part of his constituency so we cannot make demands, but America is the only superpower so it can help Kenya out of its problems. People here are not educated, they do not have jobs, there is a high crime rate. If he is elected he will still be a part of this family. If he gets there, then we hope this place also benefits because this is where his family is."
In Kisumu, nestling on the nearby banks of Lake Victoria, drinkers no longer order bottles of Senator beer: instead they order rounds of Barack Obamas.
The boda-boda boys, who spend their days pedalling bicycle taxis, the fishermen at the lake, and out-of-towners at the Imperial Hotel all talk of a growing sense of pride.