Nairobi - Kenya was on a heightened terror alert Friday after recent suicide bombings in neighbouring Somalia and the arrest Thursday in Nairobi of a man carrying what were believed to be detonators.

Five suicide bombs in the breakaway Somali regions of Somaliland and Puntland killed at least 26 people Wednesday.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said the fact that the bombings took place as Somali leaders were meeting with regional heads of state in Kenya at the same time had raised fears in Kenya.

Nairobi - Kenyan police have barred the media from the home of the grandmother of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama in the run-up to next week's US elections, news reports said Thursday.

Local and international journalists have been increasingly pestering Sarah Obama and her family in the small village of Kogelo in western Kenya as the elections approach.

Police now have placed an embargo on all interviews with or photographs of Senator Obama's extended family in Kenya until after the voting.

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.