Obama: Kenya at crossroads between peril and promise

Declaring Kenya at a “crossroads” between promise and peril, President Barack Obama pressed the nation of his father’s birth to root out corruption, treat women and minorities as equal citizens, and take responsibility for its future.

Closing his historic visit with an address to the Kenyan people, Obama traced the arc of the country’s evolution from colonialism to independence, as well as his own family’s history here.

Obama said that young Kenyans are no longer constrained by the limited options of his grandfather, a cook for the country’s former British rulers, or his father, who left to seek an education in the US .

“Because of Kenya’s progress — because of your potential — you can build your future right here, right now,” Obama told the crowd of 4,500 packed into a sports arena in the capital of Nairobi. He bluntly warned that Kenya must make “tough choices” to bolster its fragile democracy and fast-growing economy.

Obama’s visit to the country, his first as president, captivated a country that views him as a local son. Thick crowds lined the roadways to watch the presidential motorcade speed through the city, some climbing on rooftops to get a better view. The audience inside the arena chanted his name as he finished his remarks.

The president left Kenya yesterday afternoon, bound for Ethiopia.

Obama has written emotionally about his first visit to Kenya as a young man nearly 30 years ago, and he recounted many of those same memories in remarks yesterday: The battered Volkswagen his sister drove. Meeting his brothers for the first time. The airport employee who recognised his last name. “That was the first time that my name meant something,” he said.

Obama barely knew his father, who died in 1982 after leaving the US to return to Kenya. However, Obama has numerous family members in the country, including his half-sister Auma Obama, who introduced her brother.

“He’s one of us,” she said. “But we’re happy to share him with the world.”

Obama met with political opposition leaders, and then with a group of African youth and civil leaders on ways to promote civil society efforts. He told the civil society group that “the country is going to be better off” if it can cultivate habits of public participation and freedom.