By Martin Mutua

President Kibaki on Wednesday became the first African leader to receive a telephone call from US President-elect Barack Obama.

This hints that the presidency of Obama, whose father Barack Obama Senior hailed from Kogelo village in Siaya District, is likely to hold Kenya with a special interest.

According to the Presidential Press Service, Kibaki invited Obama to visit Kenya at his earliest convenience.

"During the telephone conversation, President Kibaki once again congratulated President-elect Obama on his historic and well-deserved victory," said the PPS in statement.

In the 15-minute conversation on Tuesday night, Kibaki conveyed the best wishes of all Kenyans, noting that Obama’s victory "which resonated well in the country had been received with immense pride and gratification."

Obama and Kibaki also spelt out future plans of engagement.

Kibaki declared November 6 a public holiday to celebrate Obama’s election as first African American president in US since their independence in 1776.

In their telephone conversation, Kibaki told Obama that Kenyans fully understood that he owed his allegiance to the American people but was "confident that Kenya would always have a special place in the President-elect’s heart."

Kibaki further assured Obama that Kenya looked forward to strengthening co-operation and ties with the United States, and wished him God’s blessings during his tenure as the 44th US President.

Should Obama honour the request to visit the country, he would be the first US President to visit Kenya since independence in 1963.

Previous US presidents have chosen neighbouring countries over Kenya. But the country’s strategic location and superior communication infrastructure has attracted many Western organisations to Nairobi.

Outgoing US President George W. Bush visited Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia in February this year.

In April 1998, his predecessor Bill Clinton toured Botswana, Senegal and Uganda, and made a stopover in Rwanda on his way to South Africa.

Obama’s ties with Kenya have been foisted since the tracing of his Kenyan relatives two decades ago, and what formed the basis of his coming-of-age autobiography, Dreams From My Father, now a bestseller in the US.

Obama might also be pleased to know that it is Kibaki who reinstated his late father back at the Treasury after he had run out of favour with the establishment, before his death through a road accident in 1982.

The US President-elect also followed closely the post-election violence in Kenya after the disputed General Election last December, personally calling then opposition leader Raila to urge him "to meet directly with the President without any pre-conditions," according to The New York Times.

Obama’s message was quite clear: "Despite irregularities in the vote tabulation, now is not the time to throw that strong democracy away,"

Obama was quoted in the newspaper as telling Kibaki and Raila to "come together, and start a political process to address peacefully the controversies. Now is the time for this terrible violence to end."

Kenya is among seven African countries that he hopes to focus on.

According to his private website, BarackObama.com, Obama expresses his devotion in fighting corruption in Kenya.

"Focus will be in mobilising international pressure for a just government in Zimbabwe and fighting corruption in Kenya," reads the plan.