US President Barack Obama begins landmark Kenya visit

US President Barack Obama arrived in the Kenyan capital Nairobi late Friday, making his first visit to the country of his father’s birth since his election as president. Obama was greeted by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta with a handshake and embrace as he stepped off Air Force One, at the start of a weekend visit during which he will address an entrepreneurship summit and hold talks on trade and investment, counter-terrorism, democracy and human rights. The president’s half-sister Auma was also on the tarmac to greet him and travel in the bespoke, bomb-proof presidential limousine, nicknamed ‘The Beast’, for the drive to the hotel in the city centre.

Everybody deserves fair treatment — equal treatment — in the eyes of the law and the state. And that includes gays, lesbians, transgender persons.

President Obama

Throngs of Kenyans lined the route of the convoy, cheering, whistling and waving as Obama’s motorcade passed by and a helicopter circled overhead. A massive security operation was under way in Nairobi, with parts of the capital locked down and airspace also closed for the president’s landing 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, including the siege of the Westgate shopping mall in the heart of the capital nearly two years ago that left 67 dead.

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