There is no doubt that Barrack Obama's candidacy in the race to the White House has raised Kenya's profile. Every time he is in the news, it is mentioned that his father was Kenyan. It would be expected therefore that his candidacy would thrust Kenya into a frenzy, with the mere thought that the next US president will have Kenyan roots.
But Kenya has its own problems with the post election violence and lethargy by leaders to compromise their political hardlines for the sake of peace. That is why Kenyans are not bothered about Obama but are consumed with their own survival. This is the situation in the streets and well reflected in the blogosphere.
Bloggers based in the US are keen to give updates on the Obama campaign but local bloggers do not have such frequent posts.
Whispering Inn [1], a blogger based in the US, reports of powerful Obama speeches and his own experience in Dallas.
An energetic Obama ran onto the stage bringing the entire arena to its feet waving placards and chanting “Obama!” and “Yes We Can!” It's easy to see why Obama's following has been labeled cult-like. Obama's speech — punctuated by wild cheering every few sentences — brought the crowd to a wide-ranging array of emotions. The ecstatic crowd cried, shouted, and cheered itself hoarse as Obama hit on the high points of his message. When it was all done, I felt spent. I had been on such an inexplicable high — yapping to the people around us, high-fiving everyone, and just letting myself go.
Kenyan entrepreneur [2] updates us about Obama's coverage in Vanity Fair Magazine but the most shocking part is that Kenyans are seeing Obama as a Luo [3], and not a Kenyan per se. They therefore feel that others are not celebrating Obama's candidacy because he is luo. A comment on the post notes:
Be prepared for a Luo Kenyan Prime Minister and a Luo American president. You are just about to witness how countries should be run professionally.
I’ve heard guys criticising Luos for celebrating Obama yet there are stories of Hawaiians, Irish (ancestral home of his mum), Japanese (there is a town there called Obama), Kansas (him mum’s home town) and many other examples also celebrating ‘their son’. ….Obama is loved by people of all races/gender/etc. They don’t see him as Luo but as ‘Ours’.
For the love of money [4], yet another blogger based in the US, has invited Kenyans to invest in Obama and Clinton shares.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters have the opportunity to not only put their money where their mouth is but to profit from their candidate at Intrade [5]. If you believe in free markets, Barack Obama contracts have soared compared to Hillary and are indication that he is likely to carry the Democratic party nomination.
Barack Obama's contracts are trading at new highs while Hillary Clinton's are plummeting to lower lows. Obama's contracts have risen from single digits in the last one and a half years. Until the end of last year, Hillary's contracts mirrored her confidence that she will be the automatic nominee.
what an african woman thinks [6]feels that Obama has made a very good representation of Kenya in his two books.
He got me with “Dreams From My Father.†It was hard to believe the parts about Kenya were written by someone who’d not been brought up in Kenya. So authentic. Neither raw nor overdone. Just right. I loved him then. And then, “Audacity of Hope” sealed the deal. I like. Last June, I remember being in a car in Johannesburg, driving from point A to point B. There were four of us, from four different countries, two Africans two non-Africans. From a discussion on the global economic climate, we segued into a discussion about who could would might be the next US President. Hillary Clinton got a fair amount of airtime.