Barack and Michelle baby name craze in Kenya

Following Barack Obama's triumph in the US elections on Tuesday night, there has been a wave of christenings in his name in Kenya. The 47-year-old son of a Kenyan father and an American mother made history this week by being elected the first black president of the United States. As a result, the country of Obama's ancestry, where his paternal grandmother still lives, has filled maternity wards with babies of the same name in tribute to the president-elect.

In Kisumu Hospital, which is about an hour's drive from the Obama ancestral home, more than half of the babies born on the day after the election were named either Barack or Michelle – after America's new first lady.

Pamela Adhiambo was one of several Kenyan mothers who gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl – and decided to name them Barack and Michelle.

"I made up my mind to name them long before the elections, and even if Obama had not won I would still have done the same," she said.

She invited the Obamas to come to Kenya and visit the twins who share their names, adding that she chose the names because she hoped it would inspire her children to work hard and achieve as much as America's first couple-elect.