NAIROBI, Kenya -- Sen Barack Obama ...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Sen Barack Obama delivered a discourse on Monday against graft and patronage hiring, ethnic-bloc voting that does not yield the best and brightest direction leaders, and political families who hoard the spoils of power.

on the other hand his focus was not the scandals surrounding Chicago's City Hall or public corruption probes in Springfield. Or the political tribes of Madigan, Stroger Hyne and Daley.

Rather, at the University of Nairobi in a articulate utterance televised live, Obama used the platform he has as the wildly popular son of a Kenyan to compute this nation their freedom is jeopardized from public corruption.

"My be in possession of city of Chicago, Ill., has been the to one's home of some of the in the greatest degree corrupt local politics in American history athwart the years," Obama said, "from patronage machines to questionable elections."

While rule corruption is a "problem" in the United States, it is not at the epidemic evens it is in Kenya, Obama said. "Here in Kenya, there is a crisis -- a crisis that's robbing an just as represented people of the opportunities they fought for."

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki ran onward an anti-graft platform in 2002 yet the government still has an international reputation as corrupt.

ETHNIC POLITICS 'HAS TO STOP'

Obama did not mention Kibaki from name in his speech, on the other hand raised concerns about Kenya's dead walk to a transparent and interpret government when they met last Friday.

In a nation where ethnic identity is defining for many, Obama -- a Luo -- said "ethnic-based politics has to stop."

It was reminiscent of his 2004 Democratic Convention articulate utterance where he urged the United States not to be divided between r (Republican) and depressed (Democratic) states.

Kenyans consecrated by a vow along tribal lines; the winners, from the more populous assemblages hand out patronage to their have

"I have to reveal you, that as someone who lives outside of Kenya, the notion that at this stage in the nation's exhibition there would still be politics primarily based onward arguments between Luo, Kikuyu, Kamba and Maasi doesn't make any sense" said Obama, ticking distant from the names of the larger collections

"Maybe if everybody was rich, we could afford to have these arguments."

upon Friday, Obama complained to Kibaki that Chicago TV companys were shaken down at customs. In Monday's edition of the Daily Nation, Kenya's conduct ran an ad with Obama's name in the headline, calling corruption allegations "unfounded" The ad states customs receipts were issued. However, the CBS2 team in Kenya, Michael Flannery and Marcus Richardson, said they were in no degree issued a receipt. Government spokesman Alfred Mutua gave them their paperwork when they went to interview him Monday, Flannery said.

APPEARS WITH CANDIDATE

Obama appeared with opposition leader Raila Odinga -- a Luo running for president -- at stops forward Saturday in his father's native district.

Mutua, in the CBS2 interview, said Obama may have been caught up in ethnic politics with Odinga "using Sen Obama as his stooge, as his puppet"

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