Obama to Finally Visit Kenya as President

It's almost been a decade since he's visited his father's homeland, but he'll beat the deadline he set for himself as president.

President Barack Obama speaks during the Democratic National Committee general session February 20, 2014 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

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By Margaret Talev

March 30, 2015 at 3:15 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

When Barack Obama visited his father’s homeland of Kenya in 2006, thousands flocked to the streets to see the fast-rising U.S. senator whom many embraced as if he were a native son.

Now, Obama is preparing to make his first visit to Kenya as U.S. president for a global entrepreneurship summit there in July, the White House said Monday. While Obama has traveled throughout Africa as president, visiting Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa, he steered clear from Kenya for nearly a decade, in part because of unrest and political considerations there, including a case by the International Criminal Court against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, which was dropped last December.