Barack Obama lays wreath at Nairobi Memorial Park

President Obama lays a wreath at the Memorial Park in Nairobi on July 25, 2015, commemorating the August 7, 1998 bombing of the US embassy. PHOTO | SAUL LOEB |

US President Barack Obama on Saturday laid a wreath at the Kenyan capital's Memorial Park in memory of people killed in the 1998 embassy bombing.

He placed the wreath on a holder in front of a wall engraved with the names of the dead and stood for a moment in silence.

Around a dozen survivors and National Security Adviser Susan Rice also attended.

5,000 WERE HURT

The scene was quiet except for the sound of a fountain just behind Obama and the distant sound of an assembled crowd of well-wishers who were kept back by police.

The US missions in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were hit by near-simultaneous car bombings on August 7, 1998.

The twin bombings, claimed by Al-Qaeda, killed a total of 224 people and injured some 5,000 β€” almost all of them Kenyans and Tanzanians.

Obama is currently making his first visit to Kenya, his father's birthplace, since becoming president.