Kenya press swelled with pride for President Obama

NAIROBI: Kenya's newspapers on Wednesday lavished praise on Barack Obama after a historic day which saw the son of a modest Kenyan become the United States' first black president.

"Mr President" was The Standard's simple headline, above a picture of First Lady Michelle Obama watching her husband taking the oath with his hand raised at an inauguration ceremony in Washington that drew more than a million people.

The daily gathered congratulatory emails from readers in a section entitled "President Obama, we are proud of you".

The Nairobi Star also praised the 44th US president but stressed Kenyans should move beyond dumbstruck admiration and seek to emulate their hero.

"Obama should now inspire Kenyans to look inward and ask how we can change our society? How can we become more like Obama? What do we need to do?"

Kenya's leading Daily Nation newspaper struck a note of caution in an editorial reminding Barack Obama of the challenges that lie ahead for him and his administration.

"The new president assumes office with the lenses of the world focused on him, and the weight of great expectation on his shoulders," the paper wrote.

The paper's cartoonist Gado depicted an Obama struggling not to buckle under the weight of a planet bursting at the seams rather than a triumphant president on top of the world.

The Daily Nation editorial argued however that Obama could achieve a lot simply by showing more respect than his predecessor to the rest of the world.

"If the US treats the rest of the world as friends and partners, it might find that the hate it attracts will dissipate, and so will some of the attitudes that make the country a prime target for international terrorism."