Senator has a front-row seat as lion devours wildebeest

MASAI MARA, Kenya -- "Nice fresh kill," said Sen. Barack Obama to his family, mesmerized, as were a string of other people on safari, at the remarkable sight of a lion eating a wildebeest.

Minutes before, the lion jumped the buffalolike animal that roams the Masai Mara National Reserve this time of year, keeping company with giraffes, elephants, impalas, zebras, gazelles and hippos.

Safari drivers in open-roof tourist transports keep in radio contact, and soon a herd of vehicles, including one with Obama, his family and friends, were racing over the dusty roadless plains to the lion.

They got there in time to see how the lion bites through the wildebeest hide to make an opening and then plunges in headfirst, emerging with a bloody face and dragging out pieces of raw meat.

This was the repelling and compelling scene and a fairly rare one, guides said, at the end of Obama's two-day, one-night break from his official U.S. government visit to South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti and Chad that started Aug. 18.

Obama and his entourage flew a charter from Nairobi to Masai Mara on Tuesday.

The Kenyan government decreed Obama's stay a state visit, a resort executive said, so meeting Obama on his arrival was one of Kenya's elite commando units plus other military and police forces.

Obama personally paid for the side trip. Staffers Mark Lippert and Robert Gibbs paid for themselves; this was considered work for one embassy official and a naval officer staffing Obama for his trip.

Going along were the U.S. writers and photographers covering Obama's African visit, making for some awkward moments since the Obamas wanted some privacy.

Obama completed his Kenya swing Wednesday night, leaving about 9 p.m. on a military aircraft to Djibouti, where he will visit a U.S. air base.

The fanfare leading up to his visit panned out; huge crowds met Obama at almost every public appearance. He urged Kenyans to move past their deeply rooted tribalism and form a new sort of Kenyan identity. Obama also very sharply criticized the administration of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, elected in 2002, for not rooting out corruption.

Kibaki has not done enough, Obama said in several venues, to root out corruption.

Obama did a series of interviews with news outlets Wednesday after taking a walk in the wildlife preserve.

I asked him to describe what nerve he thought he touched with Kenyans. He said it went beyond pride of his Kenyan heritage.

"I think that the fact that a lot of the trip was focused on areas where tourists and Americans typically don't go was something that was appreciated," he said.

"I think people appreciated I was going to Kibera, people appreciated I was going to Kisumu, people appreciated that I was going to Wajir, areas outside of Nairobi, outside of the game preserves. And I think some of the comments that I made about ordinary people and the burdens they are under as a consequence of corruption and the lack of rule of law resonated."