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Obama travelling to Africa in June
But politics appears to have scuppered hopes for Obama to reconnect with his roots in Kenya. It would likely be seen as unseemly for Obama to appear with Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected president in March.
An administration official said on condition of anonymity that Kenyatta’s election had been a complicating factor in setting Obama’s schedule in Africa.
Obama did visit Kenya in 2006, shortly after he was elected to the Senate, but before he announced his 2008 run for the White House. His visit to Africa will follow a similar tour made by his wife Michelle in June 2011, during which she met Mandela.
While the president is yet to mount a full tour of the continent, he did host a meeting at the end of March with recently elected Senegalese counterpart, Macky Sall, along with the leaders of Sierra Leone, Malawi and Cape Verde, lauding them as examples of “the progress that we are seeing in Africa.”
In 2011, Obama received four other African leaders at the White House, the presidents of Benin, Guinea, Niger and Ivory Coast. He had promised them the US would remain a “stalwart partner” to democracies in Africa.
In June 2012, Obama unveiled a sweeping new Africa strategy, with the goal of reinforcing security and democracy on a continent facing the threat of al-Qaeda and a competitive Chinese economic offensive.
The new US blueprint seeks to boost trade, strengthen peace, security and good governance and bolster democratic institutions, declaring that a continent torn by poverty, corruption and discord could be the world’s next big economic success story.
