'Welcome home, Mr President': Obama's all smiles as he catches up with long-lost family on official visit to Kenya
- President met Auma Obama as he landed in Nairobi late Friday night
- Was also greeted by Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and other officials
- Was whisked into capital city in a motorcade ahead on five-day Africa visit
- Went to family meal in his Nairobi hotel and sat next to step-grandmother
- Obama will also visit Ethiopia after three days in Kenya
President
Barack Obama was all smiles on Friday evening as he sat down for dinner
with Kenyan relatives on a state visit to the country's capital.
Not
long after touching down in Nairobi, Obama was taken to a hotel where
he met fellow Obamas including his half-sister and step-grandmother.
The
President was seen smiling at a table between Mama Sarah Obama, whom he
calls 'granny', and Auma Obama, who was born to his father's first
wife.
Beaming:
A happy Barack Obama joined a family dinner with his step-grandmother
Mama Sarah, to his left, and half-sister Auma, to his right, at a family
meal in Nairobi, Kenya
State occasion: The family gathering came as Obama made his first visit to Kenya as president
Big meeting: Obama went to the meal in Nairobi at the hotel where he was staying soon after landing in the capital
Some
three-dozen people were at the meal sitting round the President at the
Villa Rosa Kempinski hotel, where he is staying on his brief visit to
the country.
The
luxury property can accommodate some 500 diners and has a host of
restaurants as well as a plush presidential suite on its tenth floor. He
headed straight to the family occasion after disembarking from Air
Force One late Friday night, where he was met by Auma as well as a group
of high-ranking Kenyan officials.
Included
among them were president Uhuru Kenyatta, who joked with Obama as he
sat at a desk rolled up in front of the presidential plane and signed a
visitors' book for the nation.
Crowds of excited citizens crowded as close as possible to his heavily-guarded route and welcome him to their country.
Family
reunion: Obama is pictured above at Nairobi's airport hugging Auma,
who met him along with the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, right in a
yellow tie
Together: Obama and Auma met when the president was a young man living in Chicago
Shooting the breeze: Obama shares a joke with Kenyatta, as he signs a visitors' book on a desk set up in front of his plane
Gift: Obama was given a bouquet of flower by Joan Wamaitha, and eight-year-old Kenyan girl, on his arrival
Hours before Obama's arrival, police blocked major roads and
emptied streets of traffic in the usually congested capital as
part of a huge security operation.
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