OBAMAFEVER GRIPS KENYA

Believers across Kenya are praying for Barack Obama — literally. They’re making sacrificial offerings to help ensure his victory in a nation where the Illinois senator is considered a native son.
Minibuses festooned with Obama’s image ply Kenya’s roads, and his portrait is a fast-seller in marketplaces. But one prominent preacher is taking his fervor further, saying his church is engaged in “spiritual warfare” to ensure Obama is victorious.
Bishop Washington Ogonyo Ngede met Obama during the senator’s high-profile 2006 visit to his father’s village, Kogelo. Ngede, a Pentecostal leader, said a prayer in the village before Obama spoke and “laid hands upon” the Hawaii-born senator, who he believes is anointed by God for electoral victory.
Many Kenyans, especially in the western heartland of the 3-million-strong Luo tribe, regard Obama as one of their own. One Luo-language monthly currently on newsstands in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city, even published a banner headline reading “Obama Muomo Amerka” — Obama Invades America.