"My dream is to lead this country, and the continent," said Ogweno, who is planning to study law next year.
He's got so much energy, his foot almost never stops tapping and he speaks in rapid-fire bursts of words. Teachers and adults, he said, often call him rude because he has an opinion on every issue.
But asked to name someone who has achieved the same success and overcome the same obstacles here that Obama did in the U.S., Ogweno is stumped. He could think only of a Kenyan minister who was assassinated.
"That's a tricky question," he said after a long pause. Even in his own family, unemployment is rampant and success stories are rare.
"My uncle has a master's degree in engineering and now he's sweeping floors," he said.
Does Ogweno ever worry he might face the same fate? He thought about it and shook his head.
"No," he said. "For me it's 110% possible. I will make it."
The story of the other Barack Obama, the young electrical engineering student, shows how the best-laid plans can come up against the harsh realities of Africa.
He entered the world with high expectations, named for the president-elect's successful father, an economist who died in a car crash the day after the young man was born.
He dreamed of becoming a doctor and thrived academically. But his father died of malaria when he was a young boy. Then in high school, he lost his mother to cancer.
An uncle made sure the young man finished his studies, and he applied for medical school. But a Nairobi-based college twice rejected him.
The family blames tribalism and nepotism -- they're from the wrong tribe and refused to pay a bribe. He ended up in a less prestigious polytechnic school.
"It's all a matter of who you know," he said.
As the optimism he felt after the U.S. election begins to fade, he's looking at his situation a bit more practically and, perhaps, cynically. He said he plans to ask relatives close to the president-elect if they'll help him get a visa to study in the U.S.
Nyamori, the youth activist, said it's not surprising that young people take away such lessons. He said it might be another generation before Kenya offers the same opportunities found in the U.S. Still, he said, the inspirational story from across the ocean is vital.
"Hope is the thing that gives you the strength to wake up," he said. "Even false hope is better than no hope at all."
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edmund.sanders@latimes.com
