Barack Obama’s traumatised and frightened Kenyan relatives prayed for peace in their homeland yesterday — and for their favourite son to win in tomorrow’s New Hampshire primary.

Nearly all the village of Kongelo, the presidential candidate’s impoverished ancestral home in western Kenya, trooped to makeshift local churches.

“It is calm here, we have been lucky but we are all praying for peace elsewhere in Kenya and we know Barack is thinking of us even though he is very busy right now,” said his Uncle, Said Obama, 41, the brother of Barack Obama Sr who left Kenya to study in America.

Kongelo, a remote Aids-ravaged, dirt-poor hamlet of brick houses with corrugated iron roofs, where barefoot children, goats and hens roam free, was spared the ethnic-strife that has seen 375 killed and tens of thousands forced to leave their homes.

The tribalism that colours Kenyan life

The eruption of violence following Kenya's elections has brought to the fore the latent tribalism present in every day life

Multimedia

• Video comment: Richard Dowden, Africa expert

• Video: violence in Nairobi

Multimedia

• Pictures: Kenyan elections protests

BACKGROUND

• FCO issues Kenya travel warning

• 50 die in blazing church as tribal war looms

• ‘We’ve spent three days hiding in our homes’

• British tourists told to stay indoors

Related Links

• Refugees pray for peace in burnt churches

• Expat housewife's blog chronicles the chaos

• Dreams from My Father

The village, which Mr Obama last visited in 2006, is some 45 miles west of the industrial town of Kisumu, nestling on the edge of Lake Victoria, where angry Luo youths turned on their Kikuyu neighbours who tended to support their fellow Kikuyu and “victor”, the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki.

Like nearly all the other residents of Kongelo, Barack Obama Sr, who died in a car accident in 1982, was a Luo. However, some of the men in the village have married women from of Kenya’s other 41 tribes, including Kikuyus.

“Here there is no trouble, we are all going to Church together. The worst of the violence is in the towns,” explained Said Obama. “We heard Barack has appealed for calm and we know he is right; nothing can be gained by Kenyan turning on Kenyan.”

The village is probably the only one in Kenya that boasts more election posters of Mr Obama than it does of the rival Kenyan candidates. The home of Sarah Onyango Obama, 85, Barack Obama’s grandmother, is plastered with photographs of her famous grandson’s successes, most recently his election as Senator of Illinois.

“Sarah is fine. God blessed us that no one in the village was caught up in this violence. Now we are just praying for Barack’s success . . . even if we never get a Luo in Kenya’s State House, we may have one soon in the White House.

“We are praying for that so our politicians here can have a real role model and see what they should do.”

Mr Obama enraged Kenyan politicians on his last visit by accusing them of dragging the continent backwards with poor government and corruption — the reason for the strong showing of Mr Odinga who alleges the Kenyan President and his supporters rigged the ballot when they realised they were losing.

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