Former US President Barack Obama is set to visit Kenya next month, The EastAfrican reports.
The visit scheduled for July 16 will see the former POTUS hold talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House in Nairobi before he heads to his ancestral home of K’Ogelo, west of Kenya to visit his relatives.
Obama will then proceed to South Africa where he will deliver the annual Nelson Mandela lecture the following day.
In what will be his first visit to Kenya after leaving office on January 20, last year, Obama will not be accompanied by his relatives. He has visited the east African nation three other times in 1987, 1992 and the most recent one, the high profile visit in 2015 while in his last term as US president.
Sources indicate that he might also meet opposition leaders.
The Office of the President of Kenya could not expressly confirm the visit while directing questions to Obama’s office.
“President Obama’s office will make an announcement,” State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu said.
Obama, during his 2015 visit, promised to come back to Kenya when the trappings of power would have been relaxed.
“I know that there are still places in this beautiful nation that I have not discovered. I am going to make sure that I get back and it is not just Kenya, there is an ecosystem that is connected from Uganda to Tanzania. Climbing Kilimanjaro seems like something that should be on my list of things to do once I get out of here,” he said in 2015.
“I will be back to Kenya next time, maybe not in a suit. I would also come with (my daughters) Malia and Sasha. My family loves Kenya,” said the then American President.
