July 27, 2015

Last Friday, July 24, U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in his father’s homeland of Kenya. It is the first visit to Kenya by a serving president of the United States, but it is not Obama’s first visit. He traveled to Kenya as a law student in 1998.

U.S. President Barack Obama is seen as a child with his Kenyan father in an undated family snapshot from the 1960′s. Credit: Reuters/Landov

On his first night in Kenya, Obama attended a dinner with family members on his father’s side. On Saturday, he met with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Jomo Kenyatta, the first leader of independent Kenya. Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Obama discussed economic and business issues, as well as Islamic extremism in Africa. The Islamic militant group al-Shabab has been active and has launched a number of attacks in Kenya. Obama also discussed human rights issues in Kenya.

On Sunday, Obama spoke at a sports arena. His speech encouraged Kenya, but it also touched on things about Kenya that need to change in order for Kenya to move forward. Some of the issues Obama focused on were corruption, rights for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender) people, and women’s rights. About women, Obama stated,  “Treating women and girls as second-class citizens, those are bad traditions,” he said. “They need to change. They’re holding you back.”

President Obama left Kenya for Ethiopia on Sunday. Today, Monday the 27th, he meets with African leaders to try to encourage South Sudan to accept an agreement to end the violence in that country. Since 2013, a civil war in South Sudan has killed thousands of people.

Other World Book articles:

• Gay rights movement
• Terrorism
• Women’s movement

April 6, 2015

Kenya sent fighter planes into Somalia today to carry out bombing missions at training camps belonging to Islamist jihadists al-Shabab. Both camps were in the Gedo region of Somalia, part of which shares a border with eastern Kenya.

The bombing is seen as a first response to last Thursday’s attack on a Kenyan university. Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, promised to respond to the April 2 attack in “the severest possible way.”

Al-Shabab was formed as a terrorist militant organization in Somalia around 2006. In 2012, the group pledged its allegiance to al Qa’ida. It has launched a number of bombings and attacks in Somalia and neighboring Kenya over the years. Last Thursday, four gunmen from al-Shabab launched a siege that lasted 15 hours at Garissa University College, a school of about 800 students. By the time the attackers were stopped, 148 people from the university were dead, 142 of them students and the others police and security guards. Christian students were targeted in the attack.

Other World Book article:

• Africa (2014 Back in time article)