OBAMA FINALLY ANNOUNCES VISIT TO KENYA IN JULY
(Posted 31st March 2015)
Airforce One will be making a return to East Africa for a second time in two years when President Obama will finally make good of his promise to visit the land of his father.
In 2013 did Obama skip a visit to Kenya and instead opted to stop over in Tanzania, ruffling many feathers among the Kenyan elite, some of which then skipped an invitation to come to Dar es Salaam. There was intense speculation at the time over President Kenyatta’s pending ICC case but with this dark cloud now lifted – the ICC judges recently discontinued the case in the absence of the prosecution showing any form of solid evidence – has the last obstacle been cleared.
The Obama’s hosted the Kenyatta’s last year during an Africa Summit which took place in Washington DC, and met at the sidelines of the Mandela memorial service, but it was not a one on one meeting as many Kenyans had hoped for.
The occasion for which Obama will come to Nairobi is the Global Entrepreneurship Summit which will take place in Kenya’s capital and tongues are already wagging about the timing of the announcement just days after Britain has inflicted the worst ever anti-travel advisories. ‘If those anti travel advisories would have any substance, do you think Obama would come here? In fact I am sure their Secret Service already has a presence in the country to prepare for his visit. It shows the Brits just have a hidden agenda with us. When Obama in the past flew to Afghanistan or Irak, there was no announcement because he truly flew into a war zone. The Brits make us look as if Kenya is a war zone and yet was the announcement made four months in advance, so go work that out yourself’.
It is expected that the State visit will see President Obama also visit the home area where his father grew up and which he himself visited in 2006 when he served his first term in the Senate but he had been visiting Kenya before to meet his relatives and surviving grandmother at the time.
Meanwhile are the Kenyan social media columns filling up with a variety of sentiments, many related the the expected shutdown of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport – at a time when every night the airport is already closed for 6 hours for runway repairs – as well as the expected closure of much of Kenya’s airspace. Traffic congestions too have been mentioned and considering the mega jams in Dar es Salaam two years ago it is not farfetched to imagine the chaos the surely unprecedented security measures will cause across the city’s roads and highways.
Other more mature comments though focused on the marketing value of the Obama visit, hoping that it may help to bring more American tourists into the country and prompt others to either tone down or lift the punishing anti-travel advisories, namely the UK and Australia which are leading the pack in portraying Kenya as a place best not visited.
‘Let us make good use of this opportunity’ said a Nairobi based safari operator before adding ‘He might go on a short safari while he is here, either the Nairobi National Park or maybe the Masai Mara to see the migration which should be in full swing then. If he does, that should give our tourism sector a big boost’.
It is understood that the strategists at the Kenya Tourism Board are already working on how best to use the visit to help offset the negative British attitude towards the country and inject some added market confidence and interest in Kenya into their global marketing campaign. Watch this space.
