On Africa trip, Air Force One will be crowded for once
WaPo:
Twenty House and Senate members will accompany President Obama on this week’s trip to Africa, according to White House officials, the latest sign of the White House’s effort to build a closer rapport with Congress.
The group — which includes 19 Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) — will be evenly divided between the outbound and return flight. Flake and two of his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee on African affairs, Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), will join seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday night’s flight to Nairobi. The Democratic House members include Karen Bass (Calif.), G.K. Butterfield (N.C.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (Tex.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.) and Terri Sewell (Ala.)
[READ: Why Sen. Jeff Flake is the one Republican journeying to Africa with Obama]
On the return flight from Ethiopia, the president will host 10 CBC members: Democratic Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Marcia Fudge (Ohio), Al Green (Tex.), Sheila Jackson Lee (Tex.), Robin Kelly (Ill.), Gwen Moore (Wis.), Donald Payne (N.J.), Cedric Richmond (La.) and Bennie Thompson (Miss.).
Asked Wednesday about why the president was bringing along such a large congressional contingent to Kenya and Ethiopia, his national security adviser Susan Rice told reporters, “Well, obviously we want to strengthen and sustain what I’ve referred to repeatedly as a strong bipartisan consensus around support for Africa, Africa’s development, peace and security there.”
Rice added that last month the administration was focused on renewing the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a trade bill that received overwhelming support in the House and Senate. “But obviously we have many, many issues that are important that we need Congress’s support on — legislation that will support and codify some of the most significant initiatives, including in the health and agriculture and power sectors, as well as we have a nominee on the Hill that very much needs to be confirmed for USAID administrator,” she said.
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He will become the first sitting president to be hosted by Kenya or Ethiopia, his second stop on a four-day trip beginning on Friday.
Though the visit aims to boost US security and economic ties, many Kenyans view his arrival as a native son’s homecoming.
Mr Obama will spend private time with family members, say White House officials.
But his itinerary does not include travel to the village of Kogelo where his father is buried, despite a local witchdoctor’s predictions otherwise.
Mr Obama last visited Kenya – an important US ally against Somali Islamist group al Shabaab – while serving as a US senator in 2006.
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, he will preside over the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the 1998 US embassy bombing.
He will also dine with President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Those charges were dropped in March, but the case prevented Mr Obama from going to Kenya.
Mr Obama will also give a speech to the Kenyan people in Nairobi.
Valerie Jarrett, an Obama aide, said: “Just as anybody is curious about their heritage, visiting Kenya provides him an opportunity to make that personal connection.”
The Kenyan authorities have filled potholes, repaired pavements and planted greenery along the route where the presidential motorcade will pass.
Street vendors’ stalls are creaking with Obama memorabilia such as T-shirts, portraits and DVDs.
In the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa he will become the first US president to address the African Union.
Activists have raised concerns in a letter to Mr Obama about his trip to East Africa because of alleged human rights violations.
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the US President wouldn’t hesitate to raise human rights concerns during the trip.
Mr Obama has chided African countries over gay rights, but Mr Kenyatta says it is a “non-issue” that won’t be on the agenda for the visit.
Mr Obama’s critics say he has done less for Africa than his predecessor, George W Bush, whose Aids relief programme made him a hero on the continent.
But Mr Obama’s advisers point to his own initiatives on electricity, agriculture and trade.
The US President wrote about his Kenyan roots in his best-selling 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father.
Debunked “birther” conspiracy theories once held he was actually born there, and ineligible to be US President.
Mr Obama will spend private time with family members, say White House officials, per Sky News
But his itinerary does not include travel to the village of Kogelo where his father is buried, despite a local witchdoctor’s predictions otherwise.
Mr Obama last visited Kenya – an important US ally against Somali Islamist group al Shabaab – while serving as a US senator in 2006.
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, he will preside over the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and pay tribute to the victims and survivors of the 1998 US embassy bombing.
He will also dine with President Uhuru Kenyatta, who was indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Those charges were dropped in March, but the case prevented Mr Obama from going to Kenya.
Mr Obama will also give a speech to the Kenyan people in Nairobi.
