For some Kenyans, Obama is coming home

NAIROBI (Kenya) — Karibu Kenya, President Obama. Welcome to Kenya.

For many Kenyans, the Swahili-language slogan will be more than just a polite greeting when the American president visits the country where his father was born, his first trip to Kenya since he was a US senator in 2006. They see it as a homecoming for Mr Obama, who has written with depth and emotion about his Kenyan roots but may not have much time to explore them this time, enveloped as he will be by official duties and the White House security structure.

Mr Obama is scheduled to arrive in Kenya on Friday (July 24), the first stop on his two-nation African tour in which he will also visit Ethiopia. In Kenya, Mr Obama is expected to address a meeting on international entrepreneurship.

Ahead of the visit, US and Kenyan flags line the road leading from Nairobi's main airport. Some Kenyans have adopted an Obama speech segment as their cellphone ringtone. AP