NYANGOMA-KOGELO, Kenya — For years farmers here complained about the broken dirt road through their village, so bumpy that taxi and bus drivers refused to take it. Then, two weeks ago, the government suddenly sent a tractor to smooth the way, conspicuously stopping at the doorstep of one family.
"They're not fooling anyone," said Said Hussein Obama, whose home lies at the end of the newly improved road. "It's only because he's coming. You watch, next week we'll have electricity!"
You can't fault Kenyan officials for wanting to spruce up a little before the eagerly anticipated visit late this week of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, a rising star in the Democratic Party whose late father hailed from this tiny farming town.
Obama-mania is sweeping the nation, particularly the long-marginalized west, which is preparing a hero's homecoming for the half-Kansan, half-Kenyan senator, who began a 15-day, five-nation African tour over the weekend.
Construction workers are racing to complete the new science lab at the recently rededicated Senator Obama Secondary School. A play based on his best-selling autobiography recently took the stage at Kenya's National Theater. Sales of long-popular Senator beer, which locals dubbed "Obama" after his election, have doubled since June, brewery officials said.
Obama's parents met and married in Hawaii, where he was born. When he was a toddler, his parents separated, and he only saw his father once afterward. The senator hasn't visited Kenya in 14 years. His support for abortion and gay rights would roil most voters here. But none of that matters to locals, who see Obama, 45, as their new favorite son.
"He's a role model for all of Africa," said Kenyan playwright George Orido, who adapted Obama's "Dreams From My Father" for the stage. When the publisher refused to authorize the production, Orido proceeded anyway.
"His story is our story now," the writer explained. "It's moved beyond him. He proves that Africans have the brains to lead. They don't always have to be dictators or despots."
High expectations are symptomatic of the underdevelopment plaguing so much of Africa. This part of western Kenya remains one of the most impoverished regions in the country. Obama's family homestead, near the western city of Kisumu, has never received water, paved roads or electricity.
