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Monday, Nov 5, 2012 12:30 PM UTC

Obama favored in his ancestral Kenyan village

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Obama favored in his ancestral Kenyan villageKenyan witch-doctor John Dimo, who claims to be 105 years old, throws shells, bones, and other magic items to predict the outcome of the U.S. election, in front of his hut in the village of Kogelo, from where President Barack Obama's late father came from and whom Dimo claims to have known, in western Kenya Monday, Nov. 5, 2012. While pollsters in the U.S. are using armies of live-interviewers, statistical analysis and the latest automated polling technology, Dimo, who inherited the work from his father in 1962 and has two wives and five children, is confident of his traditional methods and claimed the result would go in Obama's favor. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Credit: AP)

KOGELO, Kenya (AP) — Here in President Barack Obama’s ancestral village in Kenya, witch doctor John Dimo tossed some shells, bones and other items to determine who will win Tuesday’s election.

After throwing the objects like so many dice outside his hut in Kogelo village, Dimo, who says he is 105 years old, points to a white shell and declares: “Obama is very far ahead and is definitely going to win.”

It’s not a surprising result in Kogelo, Obama’s late father’s hometown in western Kenya and where expectations of another Obama election victory were high on Monday.

Most Kenyans consider Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, as one of their own. Barack Obama has five Kenyan half-brothers and a half-sister.

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