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In Kenya, Obama Hails Africa’s Growth and Potential Obama in Kenya: An Upbeat Tone, but Notes of Discord, Too
(about 5 hours later)
NAIROBI, Kenya — President Obama declared Saturday that “Africa is on the move,” opening his first visit in office to his father’s home country with a testimonial to the continent’s growth and potential and calling on the rest of the world to look beyond “the stereotypes.” NAIROBI, Kenya — The return of the long-lost son, as President Obama is widely seen by Kenyans, had all the elements of a family reunion. They hugged, they caught up, they talked about shared interests, they agreed they should get together more often and they had their sibling spats.
Addressing a summit meeting intended to promote entrepreneurship, Mr. Obama hailed the economic development that has transformed Kenya and other parts of Africa over the last decade. He skirted some of the issues of democracy and human rights that have haunted countries like Kenya, but he was expected to address them later in the day at a news conference. In his first visit as president to his father’s home country, Mr. Obama struck a relentlessly upbeat tone, declaring that “Africa is on the move,” praising progress toward democracy and economic growth and marveling over the changes he saw passing through the streets of this locked-down capital.
“Kenya is leading the way,” Mr. Obama said. “When I was here in Nairobi 10 years ago, it looked very different than it does today. The incredible progress that’s been made — imagine what could happen if more and more of our global business leaders and global capital paid a visit and actually had a conversation as opposed to just being blinded by some of the stereotypes that have been promoted. This thing could move even faster.” But he found himself at odds with his hosts over issues of democracy, human rights and same-sex marriage and gingerly tried to nudge them to change their ways. At a news conference, Mr. Obama said the fight against terrorism in Kenya should not be used to justify a crackdown on dissent and he argued that no state should discriminate against gays and lesbians, comparing it to the era of segregation of African-Americans in the United States.
The president’s remarks came near the start of a two-day visit that has generated enormous excitement in Kenya, where his father was born and where he still has many relatives. Although Mr. Obama has made three previous visits to Kenya, this was his first since taking office — and the first by any sitting American president — and he was given a rousing welcome. “If somebody is a law-abiding citizen who is going about their business and working in a job and obeying the traffic signs and doing all the other things a good citizen is supposed to do and not harming anybody, the idea that they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong,” Mr. Obama said. “Full stop.”
The Global Entrepreneurship Summit that Mr. Obama addressed was to be followed by a formal arrival ceremony; a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta; a visit to a memorial to those killed in the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy here; a joint news conference with Mr. Kenyatta; and, finally, a state dinner in Mr. Obama’s honor. Standing to his left on the lush lawn of the State House, President Uhuru Kenyatta accepted the advice on human rights without argument, saying Kenya was trying to improve its handling of the issue of security and liberty. “This issue of terrorism is new to us,” he said, “and as it is new, we learn with each and every step.”
“I’m proud to be the first U.S. president to visit Kenya and obviously this is personal for me,” Mr. Obama said. “There’s a reason why my name’s Barack Hussein Obama. My father came from these parts. I have family and relatives here. And in my visits over the years, walking the streets of Nairobi, I’ve come to know the warmth and the spirit of the Kenyan people.” But he flatly rejected Mr. Obama’s views on gay rights. “There are some things we must admit we don’t share, our culture, our society don’t accept,” he said. “It’s very difficult for us to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept.”
Mr. Obama arrived in Nairobi on Friday night and had dinner with three dozen of his Kenyan relatives, including his half sister, Auma Obama, and his stepgrandmother, known as Mama Sarah, who were brought to Nairobi for the occasion. On previous trips he has visited his late father’s village, but the White House decided that that would not be logistically feasible this time, given the security and media entourage that follows a president. The disagreement was quickly papered over, though, as both Mr. Obama and Kenyans focused on the historic nature of his visit. While Mr. Obama came here three times before taking office, many Kenyans had bristled that he waited until the seventh year of his presidency before coming back.
Indeed, Mr. Obama groused good-naturedly before coming that it would not be as meaningful to visit Kenya while in office, given the constraints on his movement, and his wife and daughters did not join him. But he hoped to make the most of the visit before leaving Sunday afternoon for Ethiopia. Speaking at a forum on entrepreneurship, Mr. Obama expressed a strong connection to Kenya, a theme he was to elaborate on in a speech scheduled for Sunday.
Accompanied by members of Congress and American corporate executives, Mr. Obama led a short panel discussion on business development. He announced that a goal set by the U.S. government at last year’s entrepreneurship summit meeting in Morocco — to raise $1 billion in start-up capital from banks and philanthropists — had been reached. “I’m proud to be the first U.S. president to visit Kenya, and obviously this is personal for me,” he said. “There’s a reason why my name’s Barack Hussein Obama. My father came from these parts. I have family and relatives here. And in my visits over the years, walking the streets of Nairobi, I’ve come to know the warmth and the spirit of the Kenyan people.”
“The challenge is, as so many of you know, it’s very hard to take those first steps,” he told the businesspeople gathered at the meeting. “It’s hard to access capital. It’s hard to get the training and the skills to run a business as professionally as it needs to be in this competitive world.” He held out Kenya as a model in a fast-growing region. “Kenya is leading the way,” Mr. Obama said. “When I was here in Nairobi 10 years ago, it looked very different than it does today. The incredible progress that’s been made — imagine what could happen if more and more of our global leaders and global capital paid a visit and actually had a conversation as opposed to just being blinded by some of the stereotypes that have been promoted. This thing could move even faster.”
Kenya’s economy has grown in recent years, and the World Bank recently confirmed its status as a lower-middle-income country. Last year, a statistical reassessment of Kenya’s economy found that it was $53.3 billion, 25 percent larger than previously estimated, which would account for more than 2 percent of Africa’s gross domestic product. He could not, of course, get out of his armored car to wander those streets the way he did in the past. Instead, Mr. Obama’s most intimate encounter with Kenya beyond its official leadership came during a dinner Friday night at his hotel with three dozen members of his extended family. Over a buffet of Kenyan food, including chicken, fish and beef, the president heard his relatives talk about life in Kenya and he told them a little about life in the White House.
Still, more than 40 percent of Kenya’s approximately 45 million people live on less than $1.25 a day, according to the Brookings Institution in Washington. Some of the family members told Mr. Obama they wished he could spend more time in Kenya and more time with them. “He explained to the family members the nature of his work,” Said Obama, his uncle, said in an interview.
In his initial remarks Saturday, Mr. Obama said nothing about the security situation here, which has been a major concern for Washington. Kenya has suffered horrific terrorist attacks by the Shabab, the Somalia-based affiliate of Al Qaeda, including the massacre of nearly 150 people at a university in April. The United States has worked with Kenya to counter the threat, and an African Union force that includes Kenyan troops has been pushing Shabab forces out of major cities and towns in Somalia. That work puts many demands on his time, and he cannot always spend as much time in places as he would like, the president explained. “But he said his mind is always with them, his heart is always here,” Said Obama said.
Mr. Obama also made no mention of the political troubles in Kenya, whose president, Mr. Kenyatta, and deputy president, William Ruto, were indicted for crimes against humanity, accused of instigating violence after the disputed elections of 2007 that killed more than 1,000. The case against Mr. Kenyatta at the International Criminal Court was dropped for lack of evidence last December, but the charges against Mr. Ruto remain. Aside from previous trips here, the president generally has distant connections to most of his relatives living here. On his father’s side of the family, he is closest to his half-sister, Auma Obama, who hosted him for his first visit as a young man and now heads a foundation she founded called Sauti Kuu. Also present on Friday night was his step-grandmother, known as Mama Sarah but whom he calls Granny.
Mr. Kenyatta has remained close by Mr. Obama’s side throughout the visit so far. He greeted the president on Friday night at the airport named for his father, Jomo Kenyatta, considered the founder of modern Kenya, and stood over him beaming as the visitor signed a guest book. He was on stage with Mr. Obama at the entrepreneurship event and planned to be with him through the rest of the day’s events. His Kenyan relatives have not been regular visitors to the White House, and some of those who came for dinner were strangers. “There are cousins and uncles and aunties that show up that you didn’t know existed but you’re always happy to meet,” the president said with a laugh on Saturday. “There were lengthy explanations in some cases of the connections. But it was a wonderful time.”
“Africa is the world’s newest and most promising frontier of limitless opportunity,” Mr. Kenyatta said. “Gone are the days when the only lens to view our continent was one of despair and indignity.” Using the hashtag #ObamaHomeComing on Twitter, Auma Obama said on Saturday: “Precious time family meal be4” his official activities. “Bs allegiance 2 American people (& rightly so) but he found time 2honor Kenyan heritage.”
Mr. Obama whisked through a long day of activities. He addressed the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit meeting and laid a wreath at a memorial honoring the victims of the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy here. He met with Mr. Kenyatta and planned to attend a state dinner in his honor in the evening.
Even as he prodded Mr. Kenyatta on rights, Mr. Obama made no mention of the allegations against the Kenyan president that resulted in his indictment for crimes against humanity. Mr. Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, were charged in the International Criminal Court with instigating violence after disputed 2007 elections that killed more than 1,000. The case against Mr. Kenyatta was dropped for lack of evidence last December but the charges against Mr. Ruto remain.
Even for those without blood ties, the excitement was palpable across the city, from the gated homes with manicured lawns in the grand old wealthy neighborhoods like Muthaiga and Karen to the slums of Kibera, where sewage runs in the street, poverty is endemic and families live in mud and tin shacks.
“Obama is a source of inspiration to many,” said Babu Owino, president of the Kenya University Students Organization. “The students here love him so much. They are die-hard fans. When they look at his background, he’s someone they are able to identify with.”
So much so that before the visit Mr. Owino wrote a letter to the American ambassador here claiming that at least 17 students had threatened to commit suicide if Mr. Obama did not visit the University of Nairobi. (In the end, the president did not but no suicides were reported.)
Mr. Obama transcended the tribal differences that at various points have deeply divided society here. Mr. Obama’s family is Luo while Mr. Kenyatta and his ruling elite are Kikuyu. But Solomon Wekesa, 31, a security guard who himself is Luya and watched the president speak on television, said it did not matter to most Kenyans. “In Obama, they see a man who does not see tribe, a man who is an open man,” he said. “He sees Kenya as one nation.”
Others saw in Mr. Obama’s visit the possibility for change as long as he pressed it. “I wish I would have been at the stadium where Obama will be speaking,” said Nancy Ayako, 21, a resident of the Kibera slum settlement. “I want Obama to push for reforms in Kenya’s fight against corruption to enable the poor access to a better livelihood. There are so many young people who have been marginalized, like slum dwellers.”
Indeed, expectations of Mr. Obama’s ability to make a difference may have surpassed reality. For Rogers Mogaka, a community organizer and a speaker at Kenya’s “people’s parliament,” a street corner in Nairobi where Kenyans meet daily to argue politics, Mr. Obama’s visit came too late. “Why now?” he asked. “Look, he is not coming here to meet with the common man on the street.” He added, “There are a number of issues that we think need to be addressed that affect the common man in Kenya.”