With his father, the late Barack Obama senior (second left, in glasses), his step mother Keziah (seated, left) and step brothers Malik , Sadik and sister Auma.

To these simple villagers, news that Obama was causing a political stir in the world's most powerful country is a miracle. "Ma en hono maduong" (this is a big miracle), says 50-year-old Martin Onyango.

"Wamor kod wuod Sarah. Otingo' nying Kenya malo" (We are happy with Sarah's son, he has elevated Kenya' name)," says Onyango as he chews sugarcane.

Some of the people of Alego believe Obama's rising fortunes will translate into increased employment opportunities, better roads and education opportunities. A few are even optimistic that even the dusty Nyang'oma-Kogello market will be upgraded to a big town, complete with an airstrip.

"We don't expect a whole Senator to drive to his home village. We expect him to fly direct and land at Nyang'oma," says George Onyango, a 20-year-old barber.

The prospective Senator's sister-in-law Fauziah Anyango, wife to his step-brother Malik Obama, told the Sunday Nation that she was eager to meet her heroic in-law.

Said she: "I have not met him but I pray that he wins the Senate seat. His victory will not be for us, but for Kenya and Africa."

A Sunday Nation team that set out to trace Obama's roots was surprised to find that, unknown to many, Obama has actually been to this village twice. First in 1983, when he had come to mourn his late father, Barack Hussein Obama, who had died in Nairobi in 1982; and again in 1995 when he brought home his young bride to show her his roots.

During both visits, the villagers paid little or no attention to him. He managed to slip quietly into the village, pray at his father's graveyard and meet a few relatives and villagers.

Family members told the Sunday Nation that they taught his bride how to use traditional pots (Agulu) to fetch water from a nearby stream.

Obama Jr and his bride spent nearly a week sleeping in a tiny room in his foster grandmother's old brick house and ate traditional foods.