Obama Says ‘No Limits’ To What Kenyans Can Achieve

d8d5c97d4f324cae94641f279e6cb196_18

US President Barack Obama, wrapping up a landmark trip to Kenya, has told Kenyans that there is “no limit to what you can achieve” but said they had to deepen democracy, tackle corruption and end exclusion based on gender or ethnicity. Aljazeera was there:

Obama addressed an audience of several thousand packed into an indoor arena in Nairobi on Sunday, before heading to Ethiopia, the second stop on his East Africa tour. The US president, whose father was born and died in Kenya, talked of his own experience and Kenya’s in the five decades since independence.

“I’m here as president of a country that sees Kenya as an important partner. I’m here as a friend who wants Kenya to succeed,” he said, after being introduced by his sister Auma Obama to a crowd which had secured tickets to attend.

To a mixture of applause and laughter, Obama described being picked up at the airport on his first visit to Kenya in the 1980s by his sister in an old VW Beetle that often broke down. This time, he arrived on Air Force One and travelled in the president’s armoured car nicknamed “The Beast.” “When it comes to the people of Kenya, particularly the youth, I believe there is no limit to what you can achieve,” he said, but he told Kenyans building their nation and the economy required personal effort and responsibility.