US President Barack Obama greets his half-sister Auma Obama alongside
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta upon his arrival at Kenyatta
International Airport in Nairobi yesterday. Obama arrived in Kenya
yesterday, his first visit to the country of his father’s birth since
his election as president. PHOTO | AFP
Nairobi. US President Barack
Obama arrived in Kenya last night, his first visit to the country of his
father’s birth since his election as president.
Air
Force One touched down at Nairobi’s international airport at 8.02pm,
marking the start of a weekend visit during which the president will
address an entrepreneurship summit and hold talks on trade and
investment, security and counter-terrorism, and democracy and human
rights.
Obama was greeted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta with a handshake and embrace as he stepped off Air Force One.
A
massive security operation was also under way to protect Obama. Parts
of the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been locked down, and airspace
closed during the president’s arrival and his departure late Sunday for
neighbouring Ethiopia.
Top of the list of security
concerns is Somalia’s Shebab militants, who have staged a string of
suicide attacks, massacres and bombings on Kenyan soil, including the
bloody attack on the Westgate shopping mall in the heart of the capital
nearly two years ago that left 67 dead.
Excitement has
been building in Kenya for weeks, with the visit painted as a major
boost for the country’s position as an African hub -- something that has
taken a battering in recent years due to Shebab attacks and political
violence that landed Kenyan leaders in the International Criminal Court.
Earlier
in the day the streets of the Kenyan capital were empty ahead of
Obama’s arrival, with a massive security operation under way to protect
him.
Obama, making his first visit as president to his
father’s birthplace, will address an entrepreneurship summit and hold
talks on trade and investment, security and counter-terrorism, and
democracy and human rights.
By Friday afternoon,
usually the busiest time of the week with streets jammed with cars,
roads were empty. Expectant crowds began gathering along the route to be
used by the presidential convoy in the hope of spotting Obama.
At least 10,000 police officers, roughly a quarter of the entire national force, have been deployed to the capital.
Top
of the list of security concerns is Somalia’s Shebab militants, who
have staged a string of suicide attacks, massacres and bombings on
Kenyan soil, including the bloody attack on the Westgate shopping mall
in the heart of the capital nearly two years ago that left 67 dead.
Excitement
has been building in Kenya for weeks, with the visit painted as a major
boost for the country’s position as an African hub -- something that
has taken a battering in recent years due to Shebab attacks and
political violence that landed Kenyan leaders in the International
Criminal Court.
“I need not tell you how eagerly we
have all waited for the day, or how keen we all are to make it the most
memorable of homecomings,” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told
reporters.
“It’s a vote of confidence for our city and our country,” Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero also told AFP.
He
has overseen a clean-up campaign in Nairobi, including the filling of
potholes, sweeping of streets, the repainting of faded road markings and
laying new pavements on once muddy sidewalks.
The two
main newspapers carried the same simple headline “Karibu Obama” --
“Welcome Obama” in Swahili. The Standard newspaper promised a
“spectacular reception for a son of the soil”.
Kenyatta,
writing in the Daily Nation, said that “many are the ties, not just of
friendship, but also of family” between Obama and Kenya.
- Crimes against humanity -
Obama
is celebrated as a hero throughout the country, yet many Kenyans have
been disappointed it has taken him until almost the end of his second
term in office to make the trip.
A presidential visit
to Kenya had been put on ice while Kenyatta faced charges of crimes
against humanity for his role in 2007-2008 post-election violence. The
ICC has since dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence and accusing
Kenya of bribing or intimidating witnesses.
Kenyatta,
however, has signalled that his controversial Deputy President William
Ruto, still on trial at the ICC and outspokenly homophobic -- having
describing gays as “dirty” -- would be present when government officials
meet Obama.
Asked whether gay rights would be discussed, Kenyatta said it was “a non-issue”.
But
Obama, in an interview with the BBC, said he was “not a fan of
discrimination and bullying of anybody on the basis of race, on the
basis of religion, on the basis of sexual orientation or gender”, and
that this would be “part and parcel of the agenda”.
Counter-terrorism
will also be a key topic for discussion, with Nairobi the scene of one
of Al-Qaeda’s twin 1998 US embassy bombings.
“The fight
against terror will be central, we have been working in very close
cooperation with American agencies,” Kenyatta said. “Poverty, improved
health for our people, better education, better roads, better security,
these are our key focuses.”
Obama is due to address an
international business summit in Nairobi on Saturday, an event the US
embassy itself warned could be “a target for terrorists”.
“The
American president is a high-value target so an attack, or even an
attempt, would raise the profile of Shebab,” warned Richard Tutah, a
Nairobi-based security and terrorism expert.
Mitigating
that is an overwhelming security presence in the capital, which
regional security analyst Abdullahi Halakhe described as “suffocating”.
Hundreds of American security personnel have arrived in Kenya in recent weeks.
Obama himself bemoaned the heavy security restrictions earlier this month.
“I
will be honest with you, visiting Kenya as a private citizen is
probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president, because I can
actually get outside of the hotel room or a conference centre,” Obama
said.
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