US President Barack Obama arrives in his ancestral homeland
Kenya late Friday, with a massive security operation under way to protect him
from Al-Qaeda-linked Somali militants.
Kenya president says talks with Obama to focus on
extremism Associated Press
Obama and Kenya: 1st trip to father's homeland as
president Associated Press
US issues Kenya travel warning ahead of Obama visit.
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.
Parts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi have been locked down
and airspace will be closed during the president's arrival late Friday and his
departure late Sunday, when he travels up the Rift Valley to neighbouring
Ethiopia, the seat of the African Union.
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.
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.
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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