African press review 24 July 2015

Obamamania rocks Kenya as the US president visits the land of his ancestors. But questions loom about his agenda amid heightened security and a logjam in Nairobi.

We begin in Kenya where the press has rolled out the red carpet for the nation’s prodigal son US President Barack Obama on his maiden visit to his father’s country.

"Karibu Obama" headlines Daily Nation, in a welcome poster splashed across its front page. While some Kenyans may see Obama as God coming from heaven, Daily Nation carries a front-page photograph which seems destined to show that he is indeed human. It was taken at his final campaign stop in Des Moines, Iowa on the evening before the 4 November 2012 presidential election and there is a tear streaming down his face.

The Star shares the excitement that has gripped the nation, recalling that the last time Obama visited the birthplace of his father was in 1986 when he was junior senator from Illinois.

Kenyatimes.com claims that as the arrival of his world’s most powerful president draws nearer, it is perhaps downing on Kenyans that hosting Barack Obama comes at a cost.
Obama’s arrival will shut down Kenyan airspace for almost two hours, it reports.

Nairobi is also expected to see a security lockdown, according to the online publication. Presidents Obama and Uhuru Kenyatta are due to drive to the United Nations Complex in Gigiri, Nairobi to co-chair the Sixth Entrepreneurial Summit, before holding bilateral talks at the State House. As a result of the visit, the paper reports, several highways and roads including the strategic Mombasa Road and schools, businesses and offices will be closed, especially in the Westlands and Gigiri areas.

Standard Digital highlights the frustrations felt by some MPs that Obama will not address a joint session of Parliament even though he plans to meet everyone else from the civil society as a group, as well as the executive and possibly the judiciary.

Senator James Orengo, a lawmaker for the opposition Orange Democratic Movement who moved the motion on Obama, complained that Parliament is quickly losing its standing as a democratic institution because of the “tyranny of numbers”.

Standard Digital reports that Orengo is the lawmaker for the Siaya constituency in south-western Kenya where President Obama’s father hailed from. According to the newspaper, Orengo expressed the disappointment of Siaya residents because the itinerary shows Obama will not go to K'Ogelo village where he has his roots.

For the Nation, despite frustrations senators moved a unanimous motion in Parliament asking Kenyans to put aside their ethnic differences as they welcome President Obama to the country.

South Africa's Mail and Guardian also offers robust coverage of President Obama‘s return to his fatherland. The Johannesburg paper says Kenya has deployed 25 per cent of its police force to the Obama visit as Nairobi moves to a security lockdown. The closely held details of the security arrangements for the three-day visit are a source of endless fascination and speculation in the Kenyan media.

It reveals that there is a buzz in the Kenyan media about the bespoke, bomb-proof limousine, nicknamed “The Beast” in which President Obama is expect to travel when he arrives the country. The $1.5 million (around 1.3 million euros) car is a moving fortress with eight-inch-thick steel plates, five-inch-thick bulletproof glass, Kevlar-reinforced tyres and a presidential blood bank in the boot, according to Mail and Guardian.

The Beast is one of as many as 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. Obama’s three-nation tour of Africa in 2013 was estimated to have cost between 55 and 91 million euros, according to the Johannesburg-based publication.