As far as I know Sprint and MCI (same thing now) are the only providers for US customers and there is no way of calling country to country from Kenya without a satellite phone. Even from Canada, I have MCI, Sprint and CanadaDirect. None of those allow country to country from Kenya and some do not even allow calls from Nairobi!

As I say, sometimes it's better to not stay in touch. You can always phone others and get them to phone you (if they can get through). I have at least had better luck getting through to Kenya from North America than to Cameroon.