Nairobi went into security lockdown on Friday as Barack Obama returned to his ancestral home of Kenya for his first visit since becoming president of the United States of America. Photos of him excitedly stepping out from Air Force One and reuniting with his family have emerged, courtesy Aislinn Laing, Africa Correspondent for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.
The scenes you see today were a far cry from 53-year-old Mr Obama’s first visit to his father’s home in 1987, when his half-sister arrived late to meet him at the airport in a clapped-out Volkswagen Beetle, British Airways lost his luggage and an airport official cadged a cigarette from him before asking if he knew his relative living in Texas. See more pics after the cut.
The scenes you see today were a far cry from 53-year-old Mr Obama’s first visit to his father’s home in 1987, when his half-sister arrived late to meet him at the airport in a clapped-out Volkswagen Beetle, British Airways lost his luggage and an airport official cadged a cigarette from him before asking if he knew his relative living in Texas. See more pics after the cut.
Obama last went to Kenya in 2006, when he was a U.S. senator, telling a crowd gathered in the western village of Kogelo, where his father was born, that he was proud "to come back home."
When he was elected president in 2008, jubilant Kenyans piled into Nairobi's streets. Many expected him to visit early in his first term, but he never came. But now, as his presidency enters its final stage, Obama is looking to cement his legacy on the continent.
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