PRESIDENT OBAMA’S VISIT
TO KENYA
After the President Barack Obama visit, opinion leaders are
assessing impact the visit had on, more so on Kenya. It is safe
to conclude that President Uhuru Kenyatta tops the list of those
who scored big from the function. Just some three years back,
President Kenyatta was a pariah in the community of nations,
what with the charges of crimes against humanity hanging on
his head at the International Criminal Court at Hague. However, by the time Obama came calling Kenyatta had been
vindicated and it must have been with a sense of triumph that
the fourth president of the Republic of Kenya exchanged
banter with his visitor on the runway of the Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport with the behemoth representing American
power- the Air Force One- providing the perfect backdrop in
the early African night.
down the steps of his plane, it was evident that the man was in
his element and that the visit was a closure of sorts, for the
journey in search of his roots which began with a visit in the
late 1980s. First he came as an unknown man to the extent that
the airline he was flew in lost his luggage. But this time he was
coming back arguably as the most powerful man in the world.
It is unimaginable that in the short 10 years between 2006 and
2015, the man has risen to the pinnacle of global politics.
Although his election as the American president must have
come as a surprise to many, perhaps one journalist had a
prophetic view of his 2006 visit. Filing for the Reuters news
agency, the journalist: If Senator Obama is ever thinking of
running for President- or changing career to that of a rock starhe got an excellent practice in Nairobi on Friday…”
If Obama endeared himself to Kenyans in his 2006 visit as
Illinois Senator, this time round he wrote his name across the
hearts of many in the land of his father’s birth when he
declared that he was the first ever Kenyan-American president
of the United States of America. From the time he bundled
Like a typical Kenyan going back home after a sojourn in a
faraway town city or country, Obama did not come empty
handed for his compatriots. Set to reap big are those seeking
visas to travel to the United States who will now get a 5-year
document instead of the hitherto one year visa. Hosted at the
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