US President Barack Obama visited African country of Kenya for the first time after becoming the President of the United states (POTUS) on Friday.
He was in the birth-country of his father for a business summit.
I wanted to be here, because Africa is on the move, Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. People are being lifted out of poverty, incomes are up, the middle class is growing and young people like you are harnessing technology to change the way Africa is doing business.
— Barack Obama, President, United States of America
He said that he had seen big changes in Kenya’s rapidly growing capital Nairobi since his last visit around a decade ago, saying it looked “pretty different” and praising the “incredible progress”.
While he was in Kenya, President Obama visited the site of once American Embassy to Kenya, now known as the Memorial Park in Nairobi.
The compound of the place was bombed by al-Qaeda in 1998, killing over 200 people.
The current US Embassy in Kenya had warned against the potential of Obama’s visit turning into a target for terrorists.
The narrative of African despair is false, and indeed was never true. Let them know that Africa is open and ready for business.
— Uhuru Kenyatta, President, Kenya
But the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta believed that the event presented an existent positive side of Africa.
Security
Parts of the usually traffic-clogged capital, Nairrobi, was locked down and airspace was closed for the president’s landing late Friday evening and his scheduled departure late Sunday for neighbouring Ethiopia.
Top of the list of security concerns is Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliate, the Shebab, who have staged a string of suicide attacks, massacres and bombings on Kenyan soil.
The latest of the bombings was an attack on Garissa University in April that killed 147 students.
Obama’s Kenya Link
Obama is linked to his Kenyan family via his father Barack senior, a pipe-smoking economist.
Obama has admitted that he “never truly” knew his father.
He walked out when Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.
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