Obama’s Face Found Across Africa Ahead of Visit

The visit is sure to feel different from the one he made to Kenya almost three decades ago.

It was not the first time CNN portrayed Kenya in bad light.

“Boy, those Africans have got it right”, Robertson said following the news segment.

He will become the first sitting president to be hosted by Kenya or Ethiopia, his second stop on a four-day trip beginning on Friday.

Those charges against Kenyatta have since been dropped, and Kenya is all set to finally welcome Obama as he visits his father’s home country.

Many expected him to visit early in his first term, but he never came.

On Sunday, Obama will give an address on the U.S. relationship with Kenya and its people, “touching on topics such as wildlife trafficking, girls’ education and countering violent extremism”, according to the official itinerary.

Mr Obama showed his Hawaii birth certificate in the White House briefing room in 2011.

He returned to sub-Saharan Africa in 2013, stopping in Tanzania and Senegal, but again skipping the country where citizens claim him as kin.

Nairobi Serena Hotel General Manager Daniel Kang’u was reported as saying President Obama’s visit is a major boost to Kenyan tourism.

“I know that he looks forward to having the opportunity to reach out to and have some time with family, as any of us would”, she said, explaining how Obama will try to balance official duties with a homecoming of sorts.

Concern has been expressed in Washington over Mr. Obama’s security during the trip.

In Nairobi, roads and street lights have been repaired and flowers planted, while some buildings were still receiving a fresh coat of paint ahead of Obama’s visit.

Kenya has been in the news in recent years because of the escalation of terrorism in the area.

He says in a BBC interview taped just before he left that he disagrees with Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, who has criticized gay rights in the U.S.

In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, he will preside over the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the 1998 US embassy bombing.

The likelihood is that this visit would have taken place last year but Obama was wary of being photographed shaking hands with Kenyatta, a leader then facing trial at the global Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

His father, Jomo, served as Kenya’s president from 1963 to 1978.

Speaking Wednesday, Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the U.S. firmly believed Kenyatta and the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn were elected democratically, even though the later received 100% of the vote in a contest observers said was rife with fraud.

“Gay rights are human rights whether we are in Washington, or somewhere in Asia or Africa…this is not something we shy away from underscoring”.

“We really should redouble our efforts to have African countries experience double-digit growth”, Sy said.

The 700 pastors are led by Bishop Mark Kariuki, head of the Kenya Evangelical Alliance, which represents 38,000 churches and as many as 10 million Christians in Kenya. Obama is likely to focus talks in Nairobi on security co-operation.