By Ron Mott, NBC News Correspondent
KISUMU, Kenya – You can’t walk more than a few dozen paces through the downtown streets of this city of roughly 500,000 without hearing the names “Barack,” “Obama,” or more likely, “Barack Obama,” springing forth from sidewalk conversations.
He seems to be on the minds and tongues of just about everyone here, to say nothing about all those T-shirts, bumper stickers, and colorful clothes that are fashioned into women’s dresses bearing his image. In fact, one young man made a hat that puts an ordinary 20-gallon cowboy hat to shame. It rose two feet off his head, covered with newspaper clippings about Obama.
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| AP |
The image of Barack Obama, seen on the back of a minibus, in Kisumu, Kenya on Monday. |
Simply put, Kenyans are beyond excited about the prospects of a President Obama.
Kisumu is about a 90-minute drive from the rural village of K’Ogelo, where Obama’s grandmother, siblings and extended family live. It’s usually quiet and low-key in these parts, but then again, there’s nothing usual about a potential U.S. president having ties to this hard-working, farming community carved out of the forested vistas of western Kenya.
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