Bill Clinton is offered 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter

The former US president must now consider whether the offer of 40 goats and 20 cows, made by an apparently lovestruck local official, is sufficient to persuade him to give up his daughter Chelsea for marriage.

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor wrote to Mr Clinton through Kenya's Foreign Minister, and promised him he would look after his daughter in style.

"Had I succeeded in wooing Chelsea, I would have had a grand wedding," promised the electrical engineering graduate. "I would have invited South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu to preside at the ceremony."

The councillor gave the names of the former Kenyan president Daniel Arap-Moi and two of his college mates as character references. Mr Chepkurgor also said he had been impressed by Mr Clinton's wife, Hillary, for standing by her man through the Monica Lewinksy scandal "like an African woman".

A Kenyan man traditionally has to pay a dowry in goats and cows to his bride's family and the offer that Mr Chepkurgor made for Chelsea is a generous one.