Barack Obama flies from here to Kenya today, and dispatches from a Kenyan medical student vividly describe the soaring expectations over the return of the almost native son.
"Some think ... it's a great politician who is coming to bail them from their problems," Joseph Lenai told me in an e-mail.
Obama, with a Kenyan father and Kansas mother, will have difficult personal and political terrain to navigate. His visit could be hijacked by tribal-based political interests as Kenya heads toward a presidential election, and the demands of members of his extended family may be unrealistic.
You'd think the freshman Senator had already been elected and served as US president. (Apparently some Kenyans think he already has.) That would have been a more appropriate time for such a hyped tour. But I guess the world can't wait either for such a star in the firmament.
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