Barack Obama visit significant
US President Barack Obama boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on June 26, 2014. FILE PHOTO | MANDEL NGAN |
What you need to know:
- This will be an occasion to affirm the cordial ties and explore new avenues of cooperation.
- An opportunity to host the leader of the world’s most powerful country will be a big boost to President Kenyatta, too.
The planned visit to Kenya by American President Barack Obama has stirred a lot of public interest because of its immense significance to the host nation.
Kenya has since independence five decades ago been a close ally of the United States, but for some reason no sitting American president has ever visited this country.
This will, therefore, be an occasion to affirm the cordial ties and explore new avenues of cooperation.
For many Kenyans, the fact that President Obama’s father was a Kenyan makes the visit some sort of homecoming.
Of course, the American leader has been to Kenya several times, the last being in an official capacity as a senator in his country. He made private visits to his family.
This is not the first time President Obama is coming to East Africa. He was several years ago just across the border in Tanzania, bypassing his fatherland. And he has been to West Africa several times.
An opportunity to host the leader of the world’s most powerful country will be a big boost to President Kenyatta, too.
The Kenyan leader should use the occasion to seek greater cooperation in the fight against global terrorism and to enhance economic ties.
