Campaign posters of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party line the road leading to his birth town of Beshasha where he is a local hero.
He was born in 1976 into a modest family in the rural town of around 8,000 inhabitants, and is the first person from the Oromo community to lead Ethiopia.
Residents point to recent development projects as signs of change.
Despite its modest size, the town benefits from the modernisation projects and construction works Abiy has, in the main, devoted to major cities and certain specific remote areas.
Houses and a library are springing up and numerous brand-new small shops line the impeccably paved road from Jimma, the nearest major town in Oromia.
