Nairobi- Barack Obama’s victory was greeted with unbridled joy in Kenya, the east African country that has claimed him as one of their own. From the lakeside village where his late father grew up and many of his relatives still live, to the capital, Nairobi, Kenyans stayed up all night to watch the results, which were broadcast on state television. The victory celebrations, which began at 7am local time when the polls closed on the west coast, continued all day.

The new president’s step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, told reporters she might visit Washington for the inauguration but hoped that her life would not change too much.Despite visiting the country on just three occasions, Obama has become Kenya’s biggest star. His toothy grin beams out from the back of Nairobi’s matatus, the ramshackle 14-seater minivans used for public transport. Street hawkers peddle home-made Obama merchandise including t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Yes we can’ and dollar bills emblazoned with the President-elect’s face.

The Kenyan government has sought to exploit Obama’s victory, announcing a national public holiday on Thursday. President Mwai Kibaki’s spokesman, Alfred Mutua, described the election as a “a defining moment in Kenya’s history and the history of the world. Things will never be the same again.”

Kenyans’ enthusiasm for Obama is not matched when it comes to their own politicians. Many of the current government have been accused of corruption, while some are thought to have been involved in orchestrating the post-election violence which killed 1,500 people at the start of the year. Ory Okolloh, a Kenyan blogger, said: “I hope the irony of our corrupt and selfish politicians declaring a public holiday to celebrate the virtues of Obama and his campaign is not lost on us as Kenyans.”

Obama’s father was a Luo, one of Kenya’s most marginalized tribes. Luo politicians have struggled to gain power and few believe Obama would have had much chance of becoming president of Kenya if he had been born here. The United States has elected a Luo president before Kenya—something that has not gone unnoticed by prominent Luo politicians here.

But Obama’s victory could change the way Kenyans view politics. Peter Gaithuma, a 40-year-old father of three from the market town of Kiambu in central Kenya, said the election of a minority candidate should teach Kenyans to ignore ethnic backgrounds when choosing their leaders. “Americans did not look at his race,” he said, “they looked at his leadership skills.” If Kenyans did the same, Gaithuma said, anyone could become president. “We can even have a Maasai president,” he said.