What POTUS Did To Kenya…

As Air Force One touched down at The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, on Friday July 24, 2015, the hysterical excitement amongst Kenyans went a notch higher! Kenyans at last had the leader of the world’s economic and military superpower on their soil and rightly so. Kenyans in K’Ogello village, in far flung Siaya County went gaga and even had the sterile belief that their ‘son’ would visit Sarah, at her humble village. They also requested him to bring home shoes made in the factories of Washington DC! As Obama jetted in to address the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) and visit his host, President Uhuru at the house on the hill, interesting and outright bizarre things happened. Simply put, the coming of POTUS has awed and embarrassed us in equal measure! It has brought out the best and worst in us.

The security detail from White House made a mockery of our own right at home. Air Force One, Marine One, Boeing Bell 22-V military choppers, Secret Service men and women and the might of US military dwarfed the security detail around President Uhuru. The armored Cadillac, better known as The Beast, its decoy car and escort Chevrolet engines brought Nairobi to a standstill whenever they passed. At the Shell BP Petrol Station in Westlands where they snaked into for fuelling, Kenyans were awe-struck as they took pictures. Marine One, the Boeing V-22 military helicopters left students in Kenyatta University and University of Nairobi awe-struck as they clicked away the pictures! They have been hovering over the Nairobi skies and Kenyans are awe-struck! Our skies have never been this magnificent to watch!

Grass along Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway, Uhuru Highway and other roads in the city came under unrivalled pressure to grow in under 72 hours! Yes, somehow, Governor Kidero believed that it would mature in time to provide a green scenery to President Obama and his motorcade all the way from JKIA to the United Nations Complex in Gigiri! Kidero deemed it fit to beautify the city roads to honour POTUS! Never had grass been under so much pressure to grow! Poor grass! Potholes in the streets and roads of Nairobi also disappeared! Street families in the city were flushed out of town. They had suddenly turned into persona no- gratas courtesy of POTUS! Street lights were repaired and the surveillance cameras in the city streets and roads also had their lens firmly fixed on capturing the good and bad moments of the city. The old and damply smelly walls of some Nairobi buildings were replaced by bright new coats! Nairobi suddenly shone and glittered under the sun!

JUBILEE her political nemesis in CORD spared Kenyans from their usual little boy tantrums and fights over who pees the farthest. They were uncharacteristically sober and well-behaved and had to put on a façade and save their faces as POTUS comes to town! Did Kenyans realize that the men and women under Inspector General, Joseph Boinnet were in their numbers all over the city and its environs? Kenya Police, Administration Police, the crack General Service Unit Unit, backed by Kenya Prisons and National Youth Service were all over! For some days, Kenya came close to the United Nation’s accepted ratio of police officers to civilians! Never did it feel this safe in Nairobi as mean-looking men and women in uniform kept vigil in the city! This is what the visit of POTUS meant to the security apparatus in Kenya! Over 10,000 officers were deployed to ensure that Nairobi was safe enough to host POTUS!

Our rowdy matatus and not so courteous motorists bore the brunt of having major roads blocked in the city. Mombasa road, Waiyaki, Uhuru and Thika highways, among other city roads had to endure closures just to accommodate POTUS and his near-unimaginably huge convoy that has The Beast in tow! The price that transports systems paid for Obama’s visit!

International media power, CNN drew the ire of Kenyans when it referred to Kenya as a hotbed of terror! In an unjustified ploy to capture the global attention on the wrong side, CNN simply alluded that Obama was coming to the country that is under the serious threat of terrorism and so was un-safe to visit. Kenyans On Twitter aka KOT drew their witty and cruel fire at CNN and hit back for the slur! #SomeoneTellCNN captured global attention as Kenyans viciously hit out at CNN. Needless to say, the headline was pulled down albeit to cool down the tempers checking into the CNN studios!

As some put it, the movie of Obama’s bullish security detail is played out in Nairobi and the entire nation felt it! Yes, the world’s most powerful leader was town and rightly so, the global attention was on this great nation in East Africa! Sadly, some like Governor Kidero tripped over their own feet trying to impress! Grass came under un-precedented pressure to grow in less than 72 hours!

It was our moment of fame! Obama was in town for the GES Conference and talks with his host, President Uhuru. We all went gaga about the visit! Kenyans, led by our members of the Fourth Estate were in a frenzy from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon when President Obama finally boarded Air Force One en-route to Ethiopia to address the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa! 

Remember how Kenyans lined up along Mombasa road on a chilly Friday night just to catch a glimpse of President Obama’s intimidating motorcade, and even forgo normal day schedules to get closer to POTUS throughout his first-ever visit to Nairobi! From the roads and streets, sidelines of the GES in Gigiri, Memorial Park, Safaricom Indoor Arena and Kenyatta University, we all tried our best to catch a glimpse of the world’s most powerful president! The once in a lifetime opportunity!

After all, come Monday morning, we were all left nursing the hang-over of the visit by POTUS! It feels great to be part of history when the first ever sitting president of United States of America, and sweetly with Kenyan roots, set foot on Kenya. It happens once in a lifetime!