Kenyan

Over grilled goat meat and Amstel Light, the men banter in a rapid-fire blend of Swahili and English. It's hot, humid and loud on the gravel patio of this Northeast Baltimore bar, where the tables are covered with thatched umbrellas and Kenyan-style Lingala tunes pulse from a nearby TV. Friday nights at Charlie Brown's are typically reserved for partying. But on this recent night, it's all about politics, as conversation centers on Kenya's most famous son - Barack Obama. It doesn't matter that Obama was neither born nor raised in Kenya (his father, also named Barack, was from a small village in Kenya's Nyanza province)

At the height of the crisis that followed a disputed presidential election early this year, Kenyans chuckled at an anonymous text message that poked fun at the Luo, one of the country's largest ethnic communities. They should make up their minds on which of the two Luos they would want to be president, the message said, an apparent reference to Raila Odinga - and Barack Obama. Last year, Odinga sought, but failed, to become Kenya's fourth president since the nation gained independence.

Twelve local high school bands will compete for cash and performance opportunities at "Live 12: Battle of the Bands," to be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at The Gathering Place, 6120 Day Long Lane, in the River Hill Village Center in Clarksville. Tickets are $10 in advance; $12 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Bridgeway Hope Academy in Webuye, Kenya. The project is the result of a collaboration between Courtesy on the Road Inc., a community-supported organization promoting safe driving for teens, and Caitlan Dowling, a Glenelg High School student who initiated the event as her senior project.

ELDORET, Kenya -- Angry mobs clashed with police yesterday in several Kenyan cities as news spread about the killing of a second opposition lawmaker in this Rift Valley city. The newly elected member of parliament, David Kimutai Too, was shot to death in a car with a female companion in what police described as a "crime of passion" arising from a "love triangle." The suspected killer, who worked as a policeman in Eldoret, was said by authorities to be having an affair with the same woman, who also was shot and killed.

KERINGET, Kenya -- At first the violence seemed as spontaneous as it was shocking, with machete-wielding mobs hacking people to death and burning women and children alive in a country that was celebrated as one of Africa's most stable. But a closer look at what has unfolded in the past three weeks, since a deeply flawed election plunged Kenya into chaos, shows that some of the bloodletting that has left more than 650 people dead may have been premeditated and organized. Leaflets calling for ethnic killings mysteriously appeared before the voting.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- The American government took its toughest position yet on Kenya's disputed elections yesterday, calling on Kenya's president and opposition leaders to meet immediately and saying that the election was so flawed that it was impossible to know who really won. "The United States cannot conduct business as usual in Kenya," said the statement, written by Jendayi E. Frazer, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. Kenya, an American ally, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid each year.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- As the head of the African Union met with Kenya's political rivals here yesterday to try to get them talking, opposition supporters waited tensely on the streets for news and warned of more violence if President Mwai Kibaki stays in power. John Kufuor, the AU chairman and Ghana's president, met with Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, trying to inch them toward a political resolution to end tribal violence that followed their disputed presidential contest. There was no official comment on the substance of the talks, nor any sign that the two rivals would meet face to face.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Citizens here might soon do something rarely done in Africa: vote out a president. As the Dec. 27 Kenyan election race nears, Raila Odinga is enjoying a narrow lead over President Mwai Kibaki, several opinion polls show. That's uncommon in sub-Saharan Africa, land of the Big Man, where leaders seldom suffer defeat - even if it means using their power to pull strings. Nigeria's presidential vote this year was marred by allegations of widespread rigging. Post-election riots in Ethiopia killed nearly 200 people in 2005.

The three years that passed since John Itati ran through the streets of Baltimore didn't tarnish his memory. The same mile marker brought the same surge past the rest of the field and the identical feeling that he couldn't lose. Itati, a native of Kenya, won the men's marathon yesterday in the seventh annual Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival, taking the lead at the 15th mile and finishing almost four minutes ahead of countryman Josphat Ndeti. Another Kenyan, Gladys Asiba, won the women's marathon in a much tighter race, finishing less than a minute ahead of Anastasiya Padalinskaya of Belarus.

Twenty-six people and places in the 2006 Baltimore Running Festival, one for every letter in the alphabet - or mile in the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon. A is for Mykola Antonenko, the defending champion from Ukraine. B is for Trinidad & Tobago's Pamenos Ballantyne, one of the best out of the Caribbean. C is for Kenya's David Cheruiyot, who won Houston earlier this year in 2:12. D is for Lyubov Denisova, the half marathon favorite who's gearing up for the New York City Marathon. Her best is 2:25.