WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will land in Kenya on Friday with a mission to strengthen US security and economic ties, but his personal connection to his father’s birthplace will dominate a trip that Kenyans view as a native son returning home.

Kenya is a critical Western ally in the battle against the Somali Islamist group Al Shabaab, which massacred 148 people in April at a Kenyan university near the Somali border. Obama is likely to focus talks in Nairobi on security cooperation.

He will also spend private time with family members but will not travel to the village that is most closely associated with the family name, White House officials said.

“Just as anybody is curious about their heritage, visiting Kenya provides him an opportunity to make that personal connection,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior aide and family friend of Obama, said in an interview.

Obama, who made a trip to Kenya while serving as a US senator in 2006, has voiced some disappointment that he will have less freedom to see the country during this trip, but said he was looking forward to it nonetheless.

“My hope is ...that we can deliver a message that the US is a strong partner not just for Kenya, but for Sub-Saharan Africa generally,” he said.

In Nairobi he will preside over the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the 1998 US embassy bombing, and dine with President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity largely prevented Obama from going earlier in his presidency. The charges were dropped in March.

US officials have not given details of what new security cooperation could be discussed, but Kenyatta has said the fight against terrorism would be “central to discussions.” Critics of Obama have compared his record in Africa unfavourably to that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, whose President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) programme has made him a hero on the continent.

Obama’s advisers point to his own initiatives on electricity, agriculture, and trade as solidifying his legacy.

He is the first sitting US president to go to Kenya or Ethiopia, his second stop on the two-country tour.

In Nairobi Obama will give a speech to the Kenyan people, which is likely to highlight his personal connection to the country.

In Addis Ababa he will meet with regional leaders to discuss the crisis in South Sudan and speak to the African Union, the first US president to do so.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play