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Possible Obama Africa Tour 'Could Include Kenya'
http://www.africaeagle.com/2013/01/possible-obama-africa-tour-could.html
US presidential travel patterns suggest that Barack Obama will take an extensive tour of Africa in coming months, with Kenya high on the list of possible destinations, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
"Presidents do take special pleasure in traveling to places where they have ancestral ties," Brandon Doherty, a political science professor at the US Naval Academy, told the news agency.
And Mr Obama himself told the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in 2010 that he was "positive that before my service as President is completed I will visit Kenya again."
But the son of a Kenyan economist disappointed many Kenyans by steering clear of the country during his first four years as President.
However, Obama's half brother is scheduled to contest Gubernatorial elections and this could serve as added incentive.
Mr Obama in fact spent a total of less than one day in sub-Saharan Africa in his first term, giving a speech in Ghana six months after his 2009 inauguration.
The choice of Ghana was widely interpreted as a rebuff to Kenya, which was then still reeling from the post-election violence of early 2008 following a disputed election.
Obama administration officials were critical of Kenya's failure to prosecute any of the organisers of that mayhem.
A decision by Mr Obama to visit Kenya this year will likely hinge on the outcome of the March 4 presidential election, Elkanah Odembo, Kenya's US ambassador, says he has been told by the White House.
And Mr Obama himself told the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in 2010 that he was "positive that before my service as President is completed I will visit Kenya again."
But the son of a Kenyan economist disappointed many Kenyans by steering clear of the country during his first four years as President.
However, Obama's half brother is scheduled to contest Gubernatorial elections and this could serve as added incentive.
Mr Obama in fact spent a total of less than one day in sub-Saharan Africa in his first term, giving a speech in Ghana six months after his 2009 inauguration.
The choice of Ghana was widely interpreted as a rebuff to Kenya, which was then still reeling from the post-election violence of early 2008 following a disputed election.
Obama administration officials were critical of Kenya's failure to prosecute any of the organisers of that mayhem.
A decision by Mr Obama to visit Kenya this year will likely hinge on the outcome of the March 4 presidential election, Elkanah Odembo, Kenya's US ambassador, says he has been told by the White House.
