"Young people are clamoring for change," said Principal Yuanita Obiero.
One of the school's top-ranking students, Lillian Boyi, 16, wonders whether hard work will ever be enough. She already studies 12 hours a day, six days a week, and dreams of attending medical school. But a shortage of books means she must share with other students. There's no computer or science lab. On average, only two graduates a year from the school's senior class of about 40 students make it to university.
Nationwide, the odds aren't much better. Despite free basic education, fewer than half of Kenyan children make it to high school. Fewer than 5% go to college.
Even if Lillian is one of the lucky few, her parents, who are farmers, don't have the money for tuition. Instead, as a girl in a rural area, she will face pressure to marry and have children.
"In Kenya, you can work hard but still find yourself with nothing," she said.
After Kenya's disputed presidential election last year, frustration levels soared among young people. Ethnic clashes killed more than 1,000 people. Thousands more rioted, looted and burned their voting cards in protest.
Months later, a wave of riots and arson attacks swept across high school campuses nationwide, as young people protested poor conditions, teacher maltreatment and rigorous testing schedules.
President-elect Obama, just as he appealed to young people in the U.S., became a role model for many Kenyans.
"It's one thing when an older person here tells you, 'Hey, you can make it,' but they themselves have not made it," said student leader Otieno Alfred Ogweno, 18. "It's different to see someone who actually has made it."
Ogweno is already modeling much of his life on the president-elect. A straight-A student, he is prime minister in Kenya's mock Children's Parliament. He's appeared on television defending campus protests and writes a newspaper column for teens.
Though he too is a distant cousin of the president-elect, his family isn't rich or well connected. He's a member of the Luo ethnic group, which has long been at odds with the politically dominant Kikuyus. Obama's father ran into the same ethnic roadblock when he returned to Kenya from the U.S. and entered politics.
Inspired by Obama, Ogweno took a year off after high school last year to work as a youth organizer, setting up nonprofit money-raising ventures to help students earn cash for school fees.
