REPORTER: Aaron Lewis

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Our time has come. Our movement is real and change is coming to America!

Senator Barack Obama's campaign for the American presidency has generated excitement the world over.

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: What began as a whisper in Springfield has swelled to a chorus of millions calling for change. It's a chorus that cannot be ignored, a chorus that cannot be deterred. This time can be different because this campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America IS different.

So different, in fact, that the candidate's close family members are not watching on in New England or Texas, but from here in the west of Kenya.

SAID OBAMA, UNCLE: He's a beacon of hope. He has got all that it takes to become the President of the United States.

Said Obama is the presidential hopeful's uncle. He's been watching his famous nephew's progress from the town of Kisumu, and he has nothing but pride for Barack's achievements.

SAID OBAMA: I feel so great. It was a wonderful speech.

To show me Barack's roots, Said takes me to the Obama family home, just across the equator. It's in the sleepy rural village of Kogelo that some of the presidential candidate's closest family still live.

SAID OBAMA: You're heading into Mama Sara's house. A family picture taken in 1992. That's when he visited for the second time. And there as well you can see me, standing next to the Senator.

REPORTER: The Senator!

SAID OBAMA: The presidential candidate. There we are.

Senator Obama didn't grow up here, but it was the home of his father, Barack Obama Senior - a graduate of Harvard University and a respected economist. They became estranged early in the son's life.

SAID OBAMA: Now we are approaching the grave of Senator Barack Obama's father. This is where the remains of Senator Barack Obama's father were buried.

REPORTER: Can you tell me just a little bit about him?

SAID OBAMA: Barack was a very loving person, very intelligent. He died when I was still very young but my memories of him is that he was a very intelligent person.

Barack Obama first came to visit his father's grave back in 1987.

SAID OBAMA: It was his first time in Kenya and I can say it was kind of happiness mixed with some sadness, because here is a person who's coming to see this side of his family and at the same time coming to see where his father was buried.

Another Obama still living in the village is Barack's grandmother, known as Mama Sara. She too has poignant memories from Barack Junior's first visit. In her house, one photo has pride of place – a young Barack Obama carrying a large sack of vegetables that Mama Sara was bringing home.

MAMA SARA (Translation): I told him he might not be able to manage, but he insisted. He carried the sack all the way to the market at the corner. When the other boys saw me with him, it surprised them that I had found someone to carry the sack. I told them off for never helping me. I said, "I found a young man to help me, so learn from him." He heard me raising my voice and that's when someone took our photo.

Since then Senator Obama has been back only a few times. Mama Sara doesn't speak English and her grandson's knowledge of the local language is limited to "Musawa?", or "How are you?" Even so, there's a strong attachment between the two of them.

MAMA SARA (Translation): Barack is a son of this village. He's a very kind man. He loves development. He likes peace and he loves me. He has never forgotten how his father loved me. Even now, he still asks after me. He really advocates for peace and for people to be united.

The presidential candidate's grandmother leads a simple life, tending this small plot of land, feeding her cows and chickens and raising a handful of adopted children. But even though she's a world away from the pressure cooker of Washington politics, Mama Sara has had the inside running on Senator Obama's lofty ambitions.

MAMA SARA (Translation): He told me about it right in this spot. He said "Grandma, I'm going to stand for the presidency." He told me that. I asked him "Does this mean you'll resign as a senator?" I was only joking. He tells me everything he does.

While we're talking a group of international journalists arrive and Mama Sara becomes the star of an impromptu photo shoot. She's hoping that if Barack wins the presidency the focus will move away from her and on to what her grandson might be able to do for Kenya.

MAMA SARA (Translation): If he's elected, I hope he'll contribute to the development of our country. I don't want him to think about me as an individual but of the country as a whole. We want peace and education for the children. I'm proud that he's my grandson.

A President Obama may or may not be able to deliver on his grandma's wish list. But even so, he's already being commemorated. Behind the Obama's plot is the local school – renamed in the Senator's honour after his last visit. Education facilities here are primitive, but it provides these children with their best shot at a better life. Isaac Kenya wants to become a doctor overseas. He knows that won't come easily, but he's been inspired by Barack Obama.

ISAAC KENYA, STUDENT: I think that if Senator Obama will win the presidency then the way I'm going to sit for my examination this year, I know that I'm going to excel in my exams, and if possible, I need to study abroad.

The tiny town of Kogelo offers few opportunities. Many people here are idle from lack of employment. It's so quiet that the sound of a sewing machine draws me over to Leonard Ladir, the town tailor. Leonard met Obama at the local church and he has a high opinion of the Senator, as well as high hopes.

LEONARD LADIR (Translation): He's a humble person who loves people. I will be praying for him to win the elections because if he does, our country will benefit.

God's will and Barack Obama are two things that come up a lot in conversations around Kogelo.

MAMA SARAH (Translation): It will make all of us happy but we leave it in God's hands. God will decide.

The family's devout Christianity is no small irony, given one of the dirtiest tricks of the election campaign so far has been the attempt to depict Barack Obama as a closet Muslim. Despite the innuendo, Obama's campaign is still going strong.

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: We will put a college education within the reach of anyone who wants to go.

Sitting down with Said to watch his nephew on television, I can't help but be a bit amazed at how far Barack Obama has come. For Barack's relatives, this success is clearly the result of a humble ancestry.

SAID OBAMA: I think that has to some extent really made him what he is today. He is someone who has had to fight to become what he is. He is coming from a multicultural background, multi-religious, multi-racial. And I think that one has really quite done a lot to put him where he is right now.

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA: Yes. We. Can. Yes. We. Can. Thank you, Chicago. Let's go get to work. I love you!

Credits

Reporter/Camera
AARON LEWIS

Editor
NICK O’BRIEN

Producer
AARON THOMAS

Translator / Fixer
VICTOR MANIAFU

Subtitling
STEPHEN WAYUMBA

Original Music composed by
VICKI HANSEN