President Barack
Obama left Washington for Kenya on Thursday in a trip that will also
include a stop in the Ethiopian capital and a visit to the home of the
African Union.
The landmark trip to Mr Obama's
ancestral homeland of Kenya, where his father was born, is his first as
president and is also the first time a sitting US president will visit
Ethiopia and the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The
first African-American president of the United States is expected to
address regional security issues and trade, and also touch on matters
relating to democracy, poverty and human rights in the region.
Joining
him on the trip is National Security Advisor Susan Rice, foreign policy
aide Ben Rhodes and White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Before
heading off on the trip — Mr Obama's fourth time to Africa since taking
office — he spoke about the promise, and difficulties, on the
continent.
"Despite its many challenges — and we have
to be clear-eyed about all the challenges that the continent still faces
— Africa is a place of incredible dynamism, some of the fastest-growing
markets in the world, extraordinary people, extraordinary resilience,"
Mr Obama said ahead of the trip.
He said Africa "has
the potential to be the next centre of global economic growth," speaking
at an event for the African Growth Opportunity Act, US trade
legislation which aims to help bolster Africa's prosperity.
Mr
Obama has travelled to Africa more than any other sitting US president,
and talked about the "deep" ties between Africa and the United States
before setting off on the trip.
"There have been times
where there have been misunderstandings, and there have been times where
there have been suspicions. But when you look at every survey, it turns
out that the people of Africa love the United States and what it stands
for," he said.
ELECTION
Mr
Obama has not yet been to Kenya during his White House tenure, with a
previous trip delayed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's indictment
for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Those charges were suspended last year — in part, prosecutors say, because the Kenyan government thwarted the investigation.
His
trip has also come under fire by rights groups, and more than 50
African and global human rights organisations have called on him to
publicly meet democracy activists on the trip.
They voiced concerns about "grave and worsening" rights challenges in both Kenya and Ethiopia.
The
charges against Kenyatta, and the fact Ethiopia's government won 100
per cent of parliamentary seats in a recent disputed election, has
raised questions about whether Mr Obama should have made the trip at
all.
In Kenya, Mr Obama will attend a Global
Entrepreneurship Summit, aimed at promoting businesses that promise to
lift many more Africans out of poverty and help insulate societies
against radicalisation.
In Addis Ababa, Mr Obama is
expected to address leaders of the African Union, remarks that may touch
on Africa's democratic deficit.
There are no official visits scheduled for the US President to see his relatives while in Kenya, officials said.
Mr
Obama has said he had "never truly known" his father, was born in
Kenya's far west, in a village near the equator and the shores of Lake
Victoria.
A pipe-smoking economist, he walked out when Mr Obama was just two and died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982, aged 46.
Mr Obama has previously made personal visits to Kogelo, the home of many of his Kenyan relatives, most recently in 2006.