President Obama arrives in Nairobi amid tight security measures
July 24, 2015 (NAIROBI) – President Barrack Obama has arrived in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Friday evening, amid tight security on his first visit to his father’s native country since he became the United States 44th president in 2008.
Obama’s itinerary which was earlier released by the White House on Thursday indicated his first major event while in Nairobi will be to deliver a speech to a global summit on entrepreneurship on Saturday.
The leader of the world’s most powerful nation will also hold meeting with his Kenyan counter-part which is expected to focus on security threats posed by radical groups including a Somali-based Al-Shabaab that carried out many attacks in Kenya.
President Obama will also interact with groups of civil society, visit Kenyatta University as well as have time with members of his ancestral family from the Luo ethnic group in the country.
SECURITY MEASURES
Over 10,000 police officers have been deployed in the Kenyan capital and a number of major roads have been closed as part of the security measures. Nairobi’s police commander, Benson Kibue, announced on Wednesday that the force, which is almost one quarter of the entire national force, will spread throughout the city in ensuring safety of the dignitaries and citizens during the three-day visit of the US president.
About one hour before his plane touched down at the airport, Kenyan airspace was cleared and no any other plane was allowed to pass through the Kenyan airspace or land at the Jomokenyatta airport.
A number of US military aircraft, flown from the US military base in Djibouti, could be seen hovering over Nairobi since Thursday and hundreds of US security agents were said to have been deployed in the city.
Other military helicopters have reportedly been flown in from a US Special Forces facility at Kenya’s Manda Bay base, which serves as a Launchpad for raids on Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.
Also while in the capital, president Obama is expected to travel in his bespoke, bomb-proof limousine, nicknamed ‘The Beast’ which has been flown in from Washington. The $1.5 million worth bomb-proof and bullet-proof vehicle is a moving fortress with eight-inch thick steel plates, five-inch thick bullet-proof glass, Kevlar-reinforced tyres, and a presidential blood bank in the boot.
The Beast is reportedly one of 60 vehicles flown into Kenya for the visit, Kenya Airports Authority officials told The Standard newspaper, as snapped photos of the vehicles arriving on cargo planes were shared on social media.
President Obama’s first leg tour of Africa in 2013 was estimated to have cost between $60 and $100 million.
AFP reported that a planning memo leaked to the Washington Post revealed that security measures for the visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania in that year included a navy aircraft carrier moored offshore, fighter jets providing 24-hour air cover, more than a dozen armoured limousines flown in and sheets of bullet-proof glass imported to protect the hotels where he stayed.
Kenyan media has been alerting the public about other possible security measures including interval interruption or jamming of phone networks in and around the Nariobi capital during his three days of stay.
He will end his visit on Sunday and proceed to the Ethiopian capital, Nairobi, to hold talks with senior officials of the Ethiopian government as well as with the African Union (AU) on a number of continental issues including the peace process in South Sudan.
(ST)
