AFRICA-OBAMA/KENYA-MORNING Kenyans keep abreast of Obama’s landmark visit to ancestral homeland

Record ID: 146338

  • Title: AFRICA-OBAMA/KENYA-MORNING Kenyans keep abreast of Obama’s landmark visit to ancestral homeland
  • Date: 25th July 2015
  • Summary: KENYAN PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA AND US PRESIDENT, BARACK OBAMA ON FRONT PAGE
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA25IG86FP68L0ZSLHL4PFT8WHS
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: No prizes for guessing the top story in Kenya on Saturday (July25). Vendors were out early in Nairobi, and reported high demand for morning papers featuring U.S. President Barack Obama's arrival in Kenya the previous evening.
    High security in the central business district and road closures, however, have discouraged a number of businesses from opening.
    Mrefu, a newspaper vendor was out by six in the morning selling newspapers at his stand.
    "Business is not good because we depend on people who come into town, it's very difficult to find customers today," he said.
    Eager readers want to follow developments of Obama's historic visit to the country, the first since he took office in 2008.
    Many residents have opted to stay home and follow live broadcasts of the Obama visit on television.
    Kenya and Africa in general, celebrated when Obama became the first African-American to be elected president.
    Obama's plane, Air Force One, landed on Friday (July24) evening in the Kenyan capital, to co-host a conference on boosting entrepreneurs in Africa before travelling on to Ethiopia.
    In 2006, US president Barack Obama visited Kenya as an American senator. He had been to the east African nation several times before but never as such a high profile government official.
    Obama's family connection to Kenya has cast a trip that is otherwise likely to focus on trade and counterterrorism issues in a personal light. He is not expected to travel to the village where his father is buried.
    As an African-American whose father was born in Kenya, Obama was considered by many as a "son" of Africa and an example for many on the continent that anything was possible.
    Kenyans felt jilted, as he left out his father's home country during his second Africa visit to Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa in 2011.
    Obama has travelled to Ghana in 2009 and He has also visited Egypt, and South Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral.
    The name of the U.S. president has become a symbol of what many believe Obama stood for - hard work and success and many have high expectations of his visit.
    "We are expecting good things from Obama's visit, especially in relation to the international summit that has brought him here," said Dick Manyara, a Nairobi resident.
    Hours before Obama's arrival, police blocked major roads in Nairobi and emptied streets of traffic in the usually congested capital as part of a huge security operation.
    Kenya is a vital ally of the West in the battle against the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, and Obama is likely to focus talks in Nairobi on security cooperation.
    The al Qaeda-linked group was behind an attack on Nairobi's upscale Westgate shopping center in 2013, killing at least 67 people, as well as an attack in April at a Kenyan university near the Somali border that left 148 people dead.
    In Nairobi, Obama will preside at a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, pay tribute to victims and survivors of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing and dine with Kenyatta, whose indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity largely barred Obama from visiting sooner. Charges have been dropped.
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