Barack Obama

Kenyans greet Obama

Friday, August 25, 2006

By Jeff Zeleny - Chicago Tribune

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The sun was falling quickly, and clusters of street salesmen began to abandon their posts in the middle of chaotic roadways. Along a one-block stretch of a neighborhood called Nairobi West, barstools were filling up as beer bottles emptied and after-work conversations flowed.

Suddenly, a forceful admonition sounded from a dark corner of the room.

"Shhhhh!" shushed Said Nassir, 43, a medical technologist with a bottle of Coca-Cola sitting before him. "If you don't mind, Obama is on the news."

No one, at least among the people gathering here Thursday evening, seemed to mind.

In the United States, such a statement surely would draw heckles from a thirsty barroom. But for days, anticipation had been building over the arrival of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), and when the moment finally came, the patrons inside Elgesa Wine & Spirits strained to see him on a television set atop a beer cooler.

They uttered barely a word as the nightly news went on for nearly 10 minutes about Obama.

"Tonight, it was special. That's why everyone was quiet," the soft-spoken Nassir said when the broadcast moved on to another topic. "People will follow his every movement from today until he leaves. He is one of us."

For all the adulation Obama has received during less than two years in office, for all the celebrity glow he basks in, the junior senator from Illinois had never before experienced the type of hospitality shown when his plane landed here Thursday.

A 12-car motorcade -- a trapping usually bestowed upon a visiting head of state -- whisked him past admirers who lined the roads heading to his downtown hotel. A security contingent of U.S. Marines stood watch. All the while, a taxi driver ensnared in the congestion didn't mind a bit, craning his neck to take in the view.

It was a markedly different scene from that during his first four days in Africa, when the senator traveled in a car without lights or sirens and saw little trace of a red carpet.

For three days, neither South African President Thabo Mbeki nor three lower-ranking foreign ministers could find time to meet with Obama. And a substantive side trip to Congo was canceled because officials were dealing with violence in Kinshasa and didn't have time to lead a visiting senator on a tour.

But upon his arrival in Kenya, the home of his late father, suddenly Obama was no longer being treated as a freshman senator from America.

On Friday, he was scheduled to meet with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki as well as the leader of the opposition party. After lunching with several members of parliament, he is to visit the site of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing that killed 248 people here.

"Our blood is in his," said Charles Kibiru Muraguri, who was sitting at the Nairobi West bar. "And he came back to Africa to see us."

After the expectations

How, though, will Kenyans perceive him when his motorcade is leaving the city in six days? Will he receive as glorious a sendoff after it becomes clear that he has no ability to solve the problems of this impoverished nation?

"Kenya is not my country. It's the country of my father," Obama said. "I feel a connection, but ultimately, it's not going to be me. It's going to be them who are climbing a path to improving their new lives."

An afternoon drive through the city center of Nairobi underscores economic challenges facing the country. While colorful billboards entice people to drink Dasani water, fly Emirates Airline and sign up for wireless Internet access, the reality for many residents in this city of nearly 4 million is different beneath those lofty advertisements.

Men and boys in the middle of streets polluted by exhaust fumes walk from car to car, selling a bounty of goods. Neckties, alarm clocks and flowers are among items for sale.

And by simply rolling down your car window, even a Time magazine -- the May 6, 2002, edition on autism -- could be purchased at a stoplight on Uhuru Highway.

"Finding a job here is hard," said Benjamin Okola, a 30-year-old taxi driver, ignoring the men surrounding his car who sought to sell their merchandise to his passengers. "People are really expecting a lot of things from Obama."

Realistic Kenyan has hopes

But Okola, who grew up 20 miles from the Obama homeland in Nyanza province, said he knows the senator can't realistically solve all of Kenya's problems. Even so, he said he hoped his government meetings -- and a public speech next week -- would at least help decrease rampant corruption.

"He can talk to the president about it like no one else can," Okola said. "He will give a good example to Kenya of how to treat each other."

For all the fanfare surrounding the trip, details of the senator's schedule had not been widely announced to Kenyans. The secrecy stirred even more suspense and yearning.

"I can't go to sleep until I see him," said John Kariuki, a 30-year-old taxi driver who dashed back to the airport immediately after dropping off his fares in the hopes of seeing Obama's arrival. "I can't have any chance to talk to him, but I want to see this man."