Do you remember that weekend when Barack Obama visited Kenya? The excitement in the air was palpable as we prepped for the son of the soils’ return to his fatherland. The visit happened halfway through the decade, in a year that was significant for the nation. This visit was a step in the right direction for Kenya that year. Due to the security climate in the nation, we went to great lengths to ensure that this trip went according to plan.
The then President of the United States made a formal visit to Kenya, to co-host the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, as well as discuss matters of security and trade between our two countries.
This was significant because it was the first time that the summit was held in Africa and Barack Obama was the first sitting U.S President to visit Kenya. However, this was not his first visit. A 27 year old Obama, first arrived in 1987 when he was still a young community organizer. He came in search of his identity and ancestral roots, for he has Kenyan blood coursing through his veins. His father Barack Obama Sr. was an exchange student at the University of Hawaii in 1960 where he met his mother Ann Dunham. Barack Sr. left America for Kenya when his son was two years old and went on to have a career as a government economist.
Five years after his father’s death, Obama visited his ancestral homeland. In his memoir Dreams From my Father, he recalls how when his half-sister, Auma Obama, eventually arrived to collect him from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in a beaten up Volkswagen Beetle that was so old, he joked he might have to get out and push. He visited Kenya again in 2006 when he was a U.S senator. Neither of these trips warranted the preparation and security that his 2015 weekend did.
The U.S President’s visit to Kenya initiated the strictest, most rigorous security routine the region had ever undertaken to date. Hundreds of US security personnel arrived in Kenya in weeks prior to the visit, as they examined various hotels and spots. Kenya’s civil aviation authority announced that the national airspace would be closed for 50 minutes on arrival and 40 minutes on departure, meaning no planes could take off and land within the nation in this time period. A quarter of the police force was deployed in Nairobi,10,000 officers were stationed around the capital while several major roads were closed to all but emergency and security vehicles.
Obama arrived at 8pm on 24th July 2015. The nation watched as the world leader descended the Air Force One steps and Joan Wamaitha an 8 year old girl from Mariakani Primary School, received him with a bouquet of flowers. Obama and President Uhuru shook hands after which Obama proceeded to greet a line of dignitaries before embracing his sister, Auma.
Auma rode with him in the presidential vehicle dubbed ‘the beast’. This bomb proof limousine, worth $1.5 million, is equipped with 13cm thick bulletproof glass and a presidential blood bank in the boot. It must have been a vastly different ride from the one in the Volkswagen Beetle those 26 years ago.
Obama’s Presidential visit was a highlight of the decade and a huge honour for our country while it reminded every Kenyan that our personal journeys can have a lasting impact, for without his Kenyan father, and his Kenyan roots extending far back in the annals of time, there would have been no Barack Obama.
The year 2015 also held great sorrow. The world mourned with us following the Garissa attack which left 147 students dead. Universities all over the world held vigils and memorials in honour of them. In a symbolic show of solidarity, across the Atlantic in Zagreb, Croatia, 147 comrades lay on the ground for 147 seconds with ‘Kenya’, written at the center of their formation. We keep their memory alive and are comforted by the knowledge that we do not weep alone.
This was a memorable year for reasons on both end of the spectrum. We revel in the victories and stand united in the tribulations.
