When U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Africa this week, there will be a glaring omission from his itinerary: Kenya, his father and many of his relatives birthplace.
Concerns about the political situation in Kenya has more than Obama's family relationships. Kenya's new president faces the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, accused of planning the violence, undermining the country's 2007 election expenses.
Ahead of Uhuru Kenyatta's victory earlier this year, the former Obama administration officials warned that Kenyans, they "Selecting the consequences" - a word, now seems prescient, because the president's decision to jump had stopped in his ancestral homeland.
"Optics, presidential trip, not what he wanted to show right now," said Jennifer Cooke, Africa Strategic and International Studies Center.
Rather than the president will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, suitable for all the countries of democracy and good governance news, he would brag about his week-long visit neater. Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha, is expected to leave Washington on Wednesday morning.
The White House had considered visit to Kenya, they consider Africa placed in the president's first term, before the election of Kenyatta. That trip never happened, but Obama said, in fact, before he left office he visited Kenya.
"I am positive, I, as president before completion of the service, I will again visit to Kenya, he said:" In 2010 in an interview with the Kenya National Radio.
White House officials say they respect the Kenyans choose their own leaders. But Rhodes, deputy national security adviser (Ben Rhodes) said the United States also has "commitment to accountability and justice."
"Given the fact that Kenya is at its election, the new government has come into place, will have to review these issues with the International Criminal Court and the international community, it just is not the best time to travel for the president of Kenya," Rhodes said.
The Government of Kenya has muted its response to the President's decision to leave his journey County.
"It is the Americans decide Obama go," said the spokesman Muthui Carry Suwalki. "There are 54 countries on the African continent, he only visit three, so I do not see the big deal really not Kenya."
But Sam Ochieng, who lives in Kibera, Nairobi's largest slum political activist, said the U.S. President to send a message, Kenya's political issues, the future of democratic values, his personal connections.
"It would be a shame for the U.S. president to Kenya and shake dirty hands, Ochieng said."
Obama's relations with Kenya, until now, his unique family history is a well-known section. , Barack Obama Sr. was born in the village of Kogelo in western Kenya, emigrated to the United States to study, and met with the president's mother married in Hawaii. Shortly after his son was born, he left the family.
Obama in 1988, his first visit to Kenya, his father died, wrote a lot of access in his memoir, "Dreams From My Father."
"Belongs to my name, so I belong, drawn into a web of relationships, alliances and grudges why I do not understand," he wrote.
Visited the Kenyan President more than twice, most recently in 2006 as a freshman senator. He was greeted by cheering crowds in the capital Nairobi and Kogelo, where he spent time with his grandmother, and visited his father's grave. He and his wife Michelle Obama also disclose HIV test as part of their activities, when to reduce stigma surrounding the virus.
But Obama's nationally televised speech, criticized the Government's failure to curb corruption or instill trust in its people from Kenya, under the leadership earned him the cold shoulder. Kenyan presidential spokesman said at the time that Obama is Kenyan political ignorance, has not yet formed an understanding of foreign policy.
Kenya is an important U.S. strategic partner in East Africa. However, recent elections have complex relationships.
Johnnie Carson, until April as the State Department's Africa Bureau official said that in this year's election lead "Selecting the consequences", is seen as a warning against the election of Kenyatta comment. His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate invade a sovereign state elections.
Kenyatta, the country's first president's son, has been charged by the International Criminal Court "indirect co-perpetrator" in the 2007 elections by his supporters suspected of rape, murder, deportation, persecution and inhumane criminal behavior. He insists he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
More than 1,000 people were killed in ethnic violence, followed by 2007 flawed contest.
International Criminal Court has been pushed back to Kenyatta's trial began, until November 12. Kenyan Vice President William Ruto at the International Tribunal in September will also face similar charges.
 



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