In Obama's rise, Kenyans see lessons for Africa

For Africans, the election of a young black man with direct roots in Africa has a resonance that goes far beyond home-town pride. The 2008 election showed that even a nation like the US – with its troubled history of slavery and its lingering attitudes on race – can elect a man who comes from a minority group, but who has promised to represent the nation as a whole.

On a continent like Africa, where people often vote under conditions of intimidation and violence, where leaders serve the interests of themselves and their own ethnic group, Obama's election is a brush-up lesson in what democracy is all about.