Aug 27, 2006 6:00 pm US/Central
Barack Obama Visits Poorest Part of Nairobi
The Senator Does Admit There is Hope For Places Like These As U.S. And Kenya Work Together
by Mike Flannery
Nairobi, Kenya (CBS) ―
A day after visiting his late father's family in rural Kenya,
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is in the worst big-city slum in Africa,
Nairobi's notorious
Kibera.
Security was extraordinarily tight for what was scheduled to be quiet meetings with anti-AIDS activists and others. But as CBS 2's Political Editor
Mike Flannery reports, Obama got another wild welcome.
Another day, another round of cheering crowds. This time Barack Obama was visiting the heart of Kibera, notoriously the poorest part of Nairobi -- a place that sometimes literally stinks, lacking sewers, clean water and other basic needs.
"I want everyone to know the next time I come back to Kenya, this is where I'm going to come again. Because I love this area," he told a crowd of onlookers.
While Kibera is said to be the worst slum in Africa, one point made by Obama is that things are not utterly hopeless.
"Hope. I think that's something that ties the U.S. and Kenya closely together," he said.
Obama met with dozens of slum-dwellers, who have started small businesses helped by loans as small as $5 -- financed by the U.S. government and others, including $1 million donated by Shore Bank from Chicago's South Side.
Obama believes so-called micro-lending is one key way to end extreme poverty plaguing the Third World.
"Instead of just giving people handouts, what you need to do is give them access to capital, they'll figure out ways to make it into money," he added.
One Obama admirer mentioned they welcome Obama to the area because he is "our brother."
Coming up at 10 p.m., Mike Flannery reports on what this unusual trip might mean for Obama here at home, as well as the impact he is already having on the AIDS epidemic in Kenya.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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