The charm offensive is over! Obama gambles his rock star status in Kenya by blasting its barbaric treatment of homosexuals and women and calling out the country's 'cancer of corruption'
- President Obama's visit to Kenya is the first time a U.S. president has visited the African country while in office
- Billing himself as America's first Kenyan-American president, he was introduced to the crowd by his half-sister
- He aimed the speech in Nairobi at the nation's future leaders, urging them to 'choose the path to progress'
- Kenya has one of the continent's fastest-growing economies but is struggling to overcome corruption and terrorism
- President warned that the 'cancer' of corruption was costing the country 250,000 jobs
Obama urged the nation's leaders to continue to root out corruption, eliminate income equality and end tribal conflict and gender violence.
'The future of Africa is up to Africans,' he said, adding that 'Kenya is on the move. Africa is on the move'.
'For too long I think that many looked to the outside for salvation and focused on somebody else being at fault for the problems of the continent.
'We can see that future for Kenya on the horizon, but tough choices are going to have to be made.'
He also warned that the 'cancer' of corruption was costing the country 250,000 jobs.
The president, playing on his status as a 'son of the soil', was introduced by his half-sister Auma, who described him as 'my brother, your brother, our son'.
'The guy slept in a camping bed behind my couch in a tiny living room in a tiny flat.'
That's how Auma Obama described her Obama's first visit to Kenya nearly three decades ago.
She gave the president a warm introduction at his speech Sunday at an indoor arena in Nairobi. As a young man, she recalled, Obama 'fit right in' and 'ate with us at multiple tables because we're a big family.'
Now, she said, 'we're happy to share him with the world because he's not just ours.'
Auma Obama is the president's half-sister on his father's side. Their Kenyan father died in a car crash in 1982.
She recalled picking up Obama in a battered Volkswagen Beetle on his first visit to Kenya, a vehicle Obama remembered as slightly less than reliable. 'It broke down four or five times,' he said.
What a difference a few decades make.
On this trip, Auma Obama said, it was her brother who gave her a ride from that same airport in the 'Beast,' the armored limousine shipped over from the U.S. before the president arrives in a country.
'He returned the favor,' she said.
As well as the more than 4,000 people packed into the indoor area, thousands more people lined the president's motorcade route to the arena, with some climbing on roofs to get a better view.
'When it comes to the people of Kenya, particularly the youth, I believe there is no limit to what you can achieve,' added Obama, who arrived in the country on Friday.
'Because of Kenya's progress – because of your potential – you can build you future right here, right now.'
Obama's father was born and is buried in Kenya, and the country has waited for years for the opportunity to welcome him back as president.
Although one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, Kenya is struggling to overcome numerous challenges posed by widespread corruption, tribal conflict and the threat posed for the Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabab.
The group, based in neighbouring Somalia, has killed scores of people over the past two years, attacking a Nairobi shopping mall in 2013, and a university in the northeast in April.
Obama said that continued tribal and ethnic divisions are 'doomed to tear our country apart'.
The president also called for an end to violence against women, forced marriages for girls who should be in school, sexual assault and female genital mutilation.
He said: 'These traditions may date back centuries. They have no place in the 21st century.'
By the end of his speech, the crowd in the arena were chanting the president's name.
Obama's historic visit is the first time an American president has visited Kenya during his term in office.
He is due to travel to Ethiopia on Sunday, and will address the continent from the headquarters of the African Union, both representing firsts for a U.S. president.
But despite the warm welcome from the people, Kenya's leader Kenyatta did not seem so enamoured during a discussion on gay rights yesterday.
Obama spoke out in criticism of Kenya's treatment of homosexuals, comparing discrimination against gay people to racism.
He added that 'law-abiding' citizens should not be punished for loving a particular person.
'As an African-American in the United States I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently,' he said.
'When you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they are doing, but because they are different, that's the path whereby freedoms begin to erode.
'[If] somebody is a law-abiding citizen… the idea they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love is wrong. Full stop.'
But Kenyatta, standing on a stage alongside Obama, declared that gay rights are a 'non-issue' in Kenya.
'The fact of the matter is, Kenya and the U.S. share so many values: common love for democracy, entrepreneurship, value for families – these are some things that we share,' said Kenyatta.
'But there are some things that we must admit we don't share, our culture, our societies don't accept.'
Eric Gitari, who heads a Kenyan gay rights groups, praised Obama for tackling the matter on Saturday night on the basis of 'the dignity of people by speaking about simple human to human interactions.' U.S. group Human Rights First also issued a statement praising Obama for addressing the issue.
Some African rights groups, and prominent Kenyan politicians, had urged Obama to tread cautiously on the issue to avoid inflaming public opinion.
South Africa is the only African nation to allow same-sex marriage.
Kenyatta's two-year-old regime has come under fire from local media and economic experts, alleging that the administration is more corrupt than previous governments.
While Obama's late father was born in Kenya, the president himself was born in Hawaii.
Several years ago, he released a copy of his birth certificate in a bid to quell conspiracy theorists.
One of the most prominent theorists was real estate mogul Donald Trump, who questioned, over and over, whether Obama was really born in the U.S. as he debated running for president in 2011. When the document was produced by Obama, Trump said he was 'very proud' of his accomplishment.
He said he had achieved what 'nobody else' was able to do, while still referring to the document only as a 'so-called birth certificate'.
The certificate lists Honolulu, Hawaii, as Obama's place of birth.
However, the document's release hasn't silenced the president's doubters.
And with critics seemingly unlikely to quieten anytime soon, Obama has started to joke about his birthplace.
In 2014, he made a wisecrack about it at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner.
'An American won the Boston Marathon for the first time in 30 years, which was inspiring and only fair, since a Kenyan has been president for the last six,' said the married father of two. And in 2012, at the end of an Oklahoma event, Obama gave a humorous response after a female audience member approached him and said that she was born at the same Hawaii hospital as him. 'Do you have YOUR birth certificate?' he responded to laughter.
.. to be continued ..
