Obama, who is visiting his father’s
homeland for the fourth time but for the first time as president, sat down with
three-dozen members of his Kenyan family for dinner at his hotel.
He sat next to his half-sister Auma and
step-grandmother Sarah Obama, who was the third wife of the president's
paternal grandfather. She’s affectionately known to many as Mama Sarah, but to
President Obama, she’s just Granny.
Obama’s half-sister Auma was among the first people to
greet President Obama as he walked off Air Force One at
Jobo Kenyatta International Airport on Friday evening, local time.
When Obama first visited Kenya
in 1988, Auma picked him up at the airport in a sputtering baby-blue Volkswagen
Beetle that was missing a muffler. Tonight, it was a much different scene as
the president treated Auma to a ride in the presidential motorcade on his
fourth visit to Kenya.
Due to logistical constraints, Obama will
not travel to Kogelo, the village where his father was born and buried, during
this trip, officials said. Instead, Mama Sarah and others traveled to Nairobi
to accompany the president on his official trip to Kenya.
The president last visited Kogelo in 2006
when he traveled to Kenya as a U.S. senator.
President Obama will spend two days in
Kenya before traveling to Ethiopia on Sunday. It is the first time a sitting U.S.
president had visited either country.
No comments:
Post a Comment