July 30, 2015 Still on President Obama’s visit to Kenya, let’s give you a little behind the scenes gist on all the security preparations that went into the visit of the President of the United State on his first official visit to Kenya, since his election as president. The city of Nairobi was put on high alert and security forces were mobilized to the capital city of Nairobi to ensure the smooth running of protocols during the visit.
Police spokesperson, Zipporah Gatiria Mboroki explained the process:
“We have quite a number of officers who are going to work here throughout the night and right now they are here and the road is going to be closed at six in other to give the presidents a free flow of traffic“
Hundreds of Kenyan lined the streets of Nairobi to welcome a son of the soil. Agnes Konga, a traffic controller supervisor shared her info about the crowds:
“Kenyans like welcoming visitors, we are very good at that and that is why you see that they have come out in their large numbers and I believe that they are yet to come in bigger numbers than they are right now. As time go by they will be able to come in a bigger crowd to welcome His Excellency“
Of course if you watched the news, you know they did just that
President Obama flew to Nairobi on Air Force One and hundreds of residents on the streets cheered as his convoy drove near them.
While in Kenya’s capital city, Obama presided over the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, paid tribute to victims and survivors of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing and dined with President Kenyatta. Kenyatta’s indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity mostly prevented Obama from visiting sooner, but as these charges have been dropped, it gave him the green light to make history as the first sitting U.S president to visit Kenya.
Obama’s visit to Africa which rounded up with a stopover in Ethiopia, focused primarily on security and economic initiatives as he consolidates his legacy in the continent.