Kenyans applaud Nairobi’s traffic-free Obama face-lift

NAIROBI: Residents of Kenya’s capital Nairobi enjoyed rare traffic-free roads on Friday morning as many businesses shut down or cut their trading hours ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama to his father’s homeland.

Police prepared to close major thoroughfares for several hours before Obama arrived, and financial markets said they would bring the shutters down early in the hurly-burly city of more than 3 million.
As well as laying on massive security because of the threat from Islamist Al-Shabab militants from neighboring Somalia, city officials have pulled out all the stops for Obama’s visit, the first by a sitting US president.
Gangs of workers have been planting grass along the main road from the airport and sprucing up major intersections with flowers and American and Kenyan flags.
“Nairobi looks so beautiful this morning. No traffic jams, just squeaky clean roads complete with potted plants,” said Henry Kirimania, a worker at a city-center bank.
Some Nairobians welcomed Obama’s visit, saying it might serve as a reminder to Kenya’s leaders of the need to transcend the tribal affiliations that tend to predominate in its politics.
“I’m very sure Obama’s visit will make great changes in Kenya, more so in the democratic space. I really want things to work,” said Josphat Osembe, a 40-year-old civil servant.
However, others were frustrated that road closures had forced shops and business to miss a day’s trading.
“Business is down as Obama is coming. It has gone down by 80 percent because most people are at home,” said Walter Odhiambo, a petrol station supervisor in downtown Nairobi.
Obama, the first black US president, is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. He traveled to Kenya as a US senator but has not gone since entering the White House.