For many Kenyans, the Swahili-language slogan will be more than just a polite greeting when the American president visits the country where his father was born, his first trip to Kenya since he was a U.S. senator in 2006. They see it as a homecoming for Obama, who has written with depth and emotion about his Kenyan roots but might not have time to explore them this time, enveloped as he will be by official duties and the White House security structure.

"They take it really personally," Nelly Ngugi, customer relations manager at Cafe Deli in downtown Nairobi, said Wednesday of fellow Kenyans. Obama's visit is like "a brother coming back," she said.

"Welcome Home Sir..." says a message on a fake cake (made of Styrofoam) with red, white and blue icing in a display case at the cafe. A large cardboard cutout of Obama sits at the entrance. Ngugi led ...