Kenya’s National Holiday for Obama Win

November 9th, 2008 | Cat: Kenya with No Comments » | | Tags: election, holiday, Kenya, obama

Obama’s Step-Grandmother, Sarah Obama, and kenyan’s family of Kogelo

As the country celebrates Obama’s victory, there’s a big party going on all over Kenya. Singing, dancing and drumming is the order of the day as friends and relatives get together. Kenya’s President declared this Thursday as a national holiday, so the price of beer has been lowered accordingly and the celebrations can continue.

Obama’s father was born in Kogelo, an area that saw a lot of discontent in the aftermath of Kenya’s election in December 2007, a small village in Western Kenya. Now, in Kisumu city, happy crowd is partying, in stark contrast to the battles that were raging earlier this year.

Obama’s power to give hope and unite has certainly extended beyond US borders, as the BBC reports: “the US election seems to be a unifying moment for the country, with people reported to be saying that Mr Obama’s victory is a victory for all Kenyans”. Kenyans also hope an Obama presidency will help them out of a tourism slump that has affected the country so significantly since the beginning of the year due to the post-election violence.

Today, many Africans are celebrating Obama’s victory; it’s an awfully fine start to a US Presidency.

original news: here