US President Barack Obama Africa tour fails to spark excitement
Updated Saturday, July 6th 2013 at 23:18 GMT +3
By OSCAR OBONYO
US President Barack Obama's first tour of Africa as the first African-American President was ironically less colourful and emotional thanks to security concerns, a snub of his late father's homeland,Kenya, and iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela who lay gravely ill during the tour.
Except for Senegal and Tanzania, where there was remarked excitement, the ill timing of the Nobel Laureate as hospitalisation dampened Obamas tour of South Africa. And his trip to Kenya home to his half-brothers, sisters and grandmother, Mama Sarah would have particularly been emotional and rapturous.
And the US leader knows this fact very well. He appeared to regret bypassing Kenya when he iterated that the country is âvery close to my heart. He was responding to questions from the Kenyan youth via video link in a live broadcast from Soweto, South Africa.
The last time Obama visited Kenya was in 2006, while he served as a serving Senator of Illinois. He received a heroic welcome with ecstatic crowds jamming his way and events. The visit to his grandmother's home in Kogelo, Siaya County was even more electrifying.
During his African trip this time around, security was a major concern as there were no safaris or open car
parades. Instead there was a tight itinerary for Obama that focused primarily on business deals.
In Tanzania, for instance, he walked out of the plane to the humid weather and windy breeze from the Indian Ocean to the welcoming hands of his host PresidentJakaya Kikwete and his wife, Salma. And contrary to tradition, the two did not board the same open-roofvehicle where they would typically have acknowledged greetings from wananchi who had lined up along main highways from the Julius Nyerere International Airport.
Instead Kikwete was driven out of the airport ahead of his guest to State House. This change of plan, including the last minute cancelling of a safari by the Obamas in Serengeti, was purely because of security reasons.
Although regarded a ânativeâ because of the Kenyan descent, Obamaâs three-country tour was curiously duller than that of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
In 1998, President Clinton visited six countries in 12 days, with exciting traditional dance dramas in Botswana, Uganda and South Africa. And as if to strike the right cord with his hosts, Clinton was accompanied by a huge delegation of prominent African Americans.
Allocations
Bush made two trips in 2003 and 2008 were even more colourful. While in Liberia, he declared the country felt like home and in Monrovia he lost his cool to join waist-wiggling traditional dancers. His commitment and generous allocations to fight AIDS in Africa particularly endeared him to many on the continent.
Away from the African fanfare, the Obama tour was laden with business goodies and opportunities for the three countries, he visited. Although US officials deny existence of a business scramble with China for Africa, the situation on the ground is different.
According to a scorecard of Obama's recent visit by GlobalPost, America's World News Site, the US leader was partly on the continent to play catch up with China. While China offers huge loans for massive infrastructure projects that add up to tens of billions of dollars, for instance Obama only managed $7 billion for electricity projects. China offers the clearest proof of the costs of neglecting Africa: under Obama, China's trade with Africa outstripped America's for the first time in history and now stands at an estimated, and not insubstantial, $200 billion a year.er the last week the Tanzanian media, in particular, reinforced the notion that Kenyans were envious of this âturn of events with most papers carrying headlines and opinions on the perception of Kenyans.
In one of the stories yesterday, The Daily Newspublished, Kenyans disappointed, not bitter with Obama's bypass, while Ijumaa Wikendi, a Kiswahili sports weekly paper was more direct with the headline,Ujio wa Obama Wakenya Wamenunaje? (Obama Visit How are the Kenyans Sulking?)
But a retired senior civil servant, Hamisi Pambe, opines that Tanzanians may be reading too much from the Obama visit: Our excitement is misplaced because Obama is the smarter one here. He is here to exploit our new found (uranium) riches, and not because he loves or believes in us more than his Kenyan relatives.
Source: Standard Newspaper
Updated Saturday, July 6th 2013 at 23:18 GMT +3
By OSCAR OBONYO
US President Barack Obama's first tour of Africa as the first African-American President was ironically less colourful and emotional thanks to security concerns, a snub of his late father's homeland,Kenya, and iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela who lay gravely ill during the tour.
Except for Senegal and Tanzania, where there was remarked excitement, the ill timing of the Nobel Laureate as hospitalisation dampened Obamas tour of South Africa. And his trip to Kenya home to his half-brothers, sisters and grandmother, Mama Sarah would have particularly been emotional and rapturous.
And the US leader knows this fact very well. He appeared to regret bypassing Kenya when he iterated that the country is âvery close to my heart. He was responding to questions from the Kenyan youth via video link in a live broadcast from Soweto, South Africa.
The last time Obama visited Kenya was in 2006, while he served as a serving Senator of Illinois. He received a heroic welcome with ecstatic crowds jamming his way and events. The visit to his grandmother's home in Kogelo, Siaya County was even more electrifying.
During his African trip this time around, security was a major concern as there were no safaris or open car
parades. Instead there was a tight itinerary for Obama that focused primarily on business deals.In Tanzania, for instance, he walked out of the plane to the humid weather and windy breeze from the Indian Ocean to the welcoming hands of his host PresidentJakaya Kikwete and his wife, Salma. And contrary to tradition, the two did not board the same open-roofvehicle where they would typically have acknowledged greetings from wananchi who had lined up along main highways from the Julius Nyerere International Airport.
Instead Kikwete was driven out of the airport ahead of his guest to State House. This change of plan, including the last minute cancelling of a safari by the Obamas in Serengeti, was purely because of security reasons.
Although regarded a ânativeâ because of the Kenyan descent, Obamaâs three-country tour was curiously duller than that of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
In 1998, President Clinton visited six countries in 12 days, with exciting traditional dance dramas in Botswana, Uganda and South Africa. And as if to strike the right cord with his hosts, Clinton was accompanied by a huge delegation of prominent African Americans.
Allocations
Bush made two trips in 2003 and 2008 were even more colourful. While in Liberia, he declared the country felt like home and in Monrovia he lost his cool to join waist-wiggling traditional dancers. His commitment and generous allocations to fight AIDS in Africa particularly endeared him to many on the continent.
Away from the African fanfare, the Obama tour was laden with business goodies and opportunities for the three countries, he visited. Although US officials deny existence of a business scramble with China for Africa, the situation on the ground is different.
According to a scorecard of Obama's recent visit by GlobalPost, America's World News Site, the US leader was partly on the continent to play catch up with China. While China offers huge loans for massive infrastructure projects that add up to tens of billions of dollars, for instance Obama only managed $7 billion for electricity projects. China offers the clearest proof of the costs of neglecting Africa: under Obama, China's trade with Africa outstripped America's for the first time in history and now stands at an estimated, and not insubstantial, $200 billion a year.er the last week the Tanzanian media, in particular, reinforced the notion that Kenyans were envious of this âturn of events with most papers carrying headlines and opinions on the perception of Kenyans.
In one of the stories yesterday, The Daily Newspublished, Kenyans disappointed, not bitter with Obama's bypass, while Ijumaa Wikendi, a Kiswahili sports weekly paper was more direct with the headline,Ujio wa Obama Wakenya Wamenunaje? (Obama Visit How are the Kenyans Sulking?)
But a retired senior civil servant, Hamisi Pambe, opines that Tanzanians may be reading too much from the Obama visit: Our excitement is misplaced because Obama is the smarter one here. He is here to exploit our new found (uranium) riches, and not because he loves or believes in us more than his Kenyan relatives.
Source: Standard Newspaper
