Kogelo (Kenya): At the end of a dusty, dirt road lined with mango and mimosa trees, Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives sat outside on plastic chairs surrounded by chickens and drying corn kernels, listening to the radio. The early results from the New Hampshire Democratic primaries were encouraging.
"Ah, that's wonderful, but I don't want to jump just yet," declared the US presidential candidate's uncle, Said Obama, breaking into wide grin.
Kogela, the western Kenyan home village of Barack Obama's father, has been spared the political and ethnic violence that has erupted elsewhere in this country following a disputed presidential election.
But it was just 90 minutes' drive from a town where torched, ransacked and looted buildings bear testimony to the clashes, and the turmoil in Kenya, as well as his nephew's success in the US, was on Said Obama's mind.
Said Obama said he was pleased at the efforts to bring end calm made by US envoy Jendayi Fraer, who was in the region of his village today at the end of a four-day mediation mission.
Clashes have pitted other tribes against President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, long dominant in politics and the economy here.
If Barack Obama were in Kenya today, he would "work with the leadership to bring them to a round table and find a solution to the problems that have been ravaging the country," his uncle said.
In fact, Barack Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed that the senator spoke to Odinga on Monday afternoon for about five minutes before going into a rally in New Hampshire.
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