United States Senator Barack Obama, visiting his father’s homeland, praised Kenya’s democratic achievements during a meeting on Friday with President Mwai Kibaki.
Obama said Kenya’s success as a democracy should “attract foreign investors for the country and the region at large”, the statement quoted him as saying.
“We would like this interaction between Kenya and the US to translate into business opportunities for our people,” Obama said during their 30-minute meeting, according to Kenya’s presidential press service.
Kibaki shared his recollection of working with Obama’s late father, the press service said in a statement.
Later, Obama privately met opposition leader Uhuru Kenyatta.
Kenyatta said they talked about the harmful effects of ethnic and tribal politics in Kenya. He said he hopes Obama — whose father was from the Luo tribe and mother is a white American — proves that tribalism should not be paramount.
Obama’s visit — his first since becoming a US senator last year — has dominated the front pages of newspapers and television stations. “Obama arrives,” declared the country’s two leading dailies.
Hundreds of US embassy employees and their families cheered Obama, singing a song in Kenya’s national language, Kiswahili, with the lyrics: “When you see Obama has come to Kenya, this day is blessed.”
Embassy employee Ken Kambona said Kenyans will listen to Obama’s suggestions for reform in the country where his father was born and grew up herding goats. “He can tell us off without anybody feeling slighted,” Kambona told The Associated Press.
However, on the streets of the capital, reaction to his visit was more mixed.
“I consider him a hero, bright and real politician who has made it to the US Senate despite the hurdles facing African aspirants there,” said Jonathan Mutisya (36), a legal clerk. “But, however, I don’t think his tour will bring much benefit to Kenya’s common man. Perhaps his relatives will benefit from him.”
“I am not really interested in his visit because I don’t think it’s of any benefit to Kenya,” said 42-year-old tour guide Peter Githaiga. “But I am proud of having a senator of Kenyan origin in the US Senate.”
Later on Friday, Obama met survivors of the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Kenya and laid a wreath in memory of the 248 people killed. “Lots of politicians visit but this is special and meaningful because of Obama’s Kenyan background,” said bombing survivor George Mimba, a Kenyan who still works at the embassy as a computer manager.
Hundreds surrounded the park in central Nairobi, cheering and waving. A bystander was allowed through a security cordon to present Obama with a wood carving. Obama said: “We will not forget what has happened here.”
On Saturday, he plans to visit the western village of Nyangoma-Kogelo, where his father grew up and where his grandmother still lives. He will take a public HIV test at a remote clinic in an effort to promote the need for safe sex in a country where about 700 people die each day from HIV/Aids.
Although there have been recent declines in the numbers infected with the virus in Kenya, two million people of a total population of 33-million are infected. About 1,5-million have died from the disease — and western parts of the country are the worst hit.
The senator, who is travelling with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia (8) and Sasha (4), arrived on Thursday. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writers Anthony Mitchell and Malkhadir Muhumed contributed to this report