Obama arrived in his father's African homeland

US President Barack Obama arrived Friday evening in Kenya, the father’s birthplace. This is Obama’s first visit to this country since he was elected President of the United States.

Obama will attend a conference on entrepreneurship development in Africa in Nairobi.

In addition to business and investment, it will focus on security and the fight against terrorism.

A visit to Kenya is viewed, among other things, as a return to the roots. Obama will be expected to spend some time with his Kenyan relatives.

Obama was met by Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and other senior officials. A few hours before the arrival of the President of the United States, the police blocked the main roads, and usually the streets overloaded with cars were empty. In the darkness, crowds of Kenyans lined up along the path of Obama, welcoming the motorcade, reports Reuters.

Then Obama had dinner at a hotel where several dozen of his paternal relatives were invited. Among them, the half-sister of American President Aum Obama, as well as an elderly woman, "Sarah's mother", who was the stepmother of his late father - Obama, addressing her, called her "grandmother."

Kenya is the most important ally of the West in the fight against the group of Somali Islamists Al-Shabaab. Prior to this, there were two major terrorist attacks in the country. In 2013, militants attacked a prestigious metropolitan shopping center, killing at least 67 people. In April, 2015, terrorists attacked a Kenyan university near the border with Somalia, killing 148 people.

From Kenya, the US president will head to Ethiopia.