Barrack Obama to visit Kenya

• Posted on March 31, 2015
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Barack Obama will make a long-awaited return to Kenya this July, visiting his father’s homeland for the first time since becoming US president, the White House announced Monday.

During the much-delayed visit, Obama will attend a summit to encourage entrepreneurship and meet the country’s controversial leader Uhuru Kenyatta.

Obama’s late father was from a small village near the shores of Lake Victoria. He met Obama’s white American mother in Hawaii, where they had a son before divorcing.

America’s first black president has visited sub-Saharan Africa four times since taking office in 2009, but political scandal has blocked a presidential visit to his ancestral home.

For much of Obama’s time in power, Kenya’s president Kenyatta had been under investigation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Kenyatta was indicted on five counts of crimes against humanity for his alleged role in 2007-08 post-election violence that killed an estimated 1,200 people.

The 53-year-old son of Kenya’s founding father protested his innocence until the case was dropped in December.

Prosecutors complained that they had been undermined by a lack of cooperation by the Kenyan government, as well as the bribing or intimidation of witnesses.

A White House official told AFP that Obama and Kenyatta would meet during the visit.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the United States regularly raises “concerns with the Kenyan government about restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

“The president’s trip will create another opportunity for dialogue with the government and civil society on these issues.”

Kenyatta had attended a US-Africa summit in Washington in 2014 but did not hold a bilateral meeting with Obama.

– AFP