Has Obama been good to Africa?

In the specific case of Kenya, observes expert Joel Barkan, President Obama’s lineage served to reinforce the view in both Washington and Nairobi that the two countries share a “special relationship” dating to the time of independence. “That resulted in higher expectations on the part of Kenyans and also deeper disappointments with how the United States evaluates Kenya.”

Economic reforms

Both Mr Campbell and Mr Barkan give Obama’s first-year Africa policy a positive rating. Each analyst points in particular to the president’s July speech in Ghana in which he promised that his administration would be most responsive to those African countries that moved further and faster in achieving political and economic reforms.

President Obama did not intend to insult Kenya by travelling to Ghana rather than his father’s homeland on his first African safari as president, Mr Barkan says.

The president was simply stating a fact when he referred in his speech to corruption in Kenya as an obstacle to development.