As President Mwai Kibaki hailed Barack Obama in Nairobi as a true Kenyan son, technicians were busy at the US president-elect’s ancestral doorstep, frantically working to connect the village to the national electricity grid - and the rest of the world.

Sources within the Kenya Power and Lighting Company said they were under intense pressure from high up to ensure that the home of Mama Sarah – Mr Obama’s grandmother – and the surrounding area had electricity.