Nairobi- Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga, in a show of support for US presidential candidate Barack Obama, paid a surprise visit to Obama's relatives in the east African country, reports said Monday.

Odinga met with the 86-year-old Sarah Obama, the Democratic candidate's step-grandmother, and other members of his family in the tiny village of Kogelo in western Kenya, according to Kenya's The Standard newspaper.

Nairobi - US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's stern face stares out from the back of a rickety Matatu - a commuter minibus - as it swerves through traffic in Kenyan capital Nairobi, the slogan "The Real Change" plastered alongside the image.

By the side of the road a workman digs a trench, his "Obama 08" cap shading his eyes from the sun, while in a nearby bar, patrons chug down Senator beer, a cheap brew that has been nicknamed Obama beer.

Nairobi - It has been a tough year for Peter Kinywa, a trader in one of Nairobi's touristy Masai markets.

Business has plummeted as tourists stay away from Kenya following the bloody post-election chaos early this year, and soaring food and fuel prices have put more pressure on his dwindling budget.

Yet the misery looks set to continue for Peter, 45, and others like him as the effects of the global credit crisis begin to trickle also into Africa.

Africa's economy has so far remained relatively unscathed by the global financial meltdown, largely due to its limited exposure to global markets.

But Africa's economies are not immune, only isolated, and Kinywa says he is already beginning to feel the pinch.

Nairobi - Kenyan MPs want to see a tiny airport near Senator Barack Obama's ancestral home upgraded to allow Air Force One to land there should he win the upcoming US elections, reports said Friday.

The Nairobi Star said that MPs from Nyanza Province believed that an Obama win was a foregone conclusion and that Kisumu airport should be quickly brought up to scratch.

The senator's father was born in the village of Kogelo, which is around 60 kilometres from Kisumu. His grandmother, Sarah Obama, still lives there.

Obama has never lived in Kenya and has only visited the country a handful of times. Despite this, he is viewed as a hero in the East African nation.

Nairobi - Somali insurgents have said they will take their fight to Kenya if the neighbouring nation carries out a plan to train Somali government troops.

Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minster Moses Wetangula recently offered to provide training to around 10,000 troops currently taking a hammering in Somalia's bloody Islamist insurgency.

"We will order all our holy warriors to start the jihadi war inside Kenya," the BBC quoted spokesman Sheikh Muktar Robow as saying.

Almost daily battles have blighted Somalia since Ethiopian troops invaded in 2006 to kick out the Islamist regime and put the transitional federal government back in power.

Abuja - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said that the power-sharing model used to end the post-election chaos in his own country should not be used as a blanket solution for African states.