Presidential tours are always expensive, but
especially so when the country being visited is, like Kenya, the scene of
regular terrorist attacks. US and Kenyan officials are fixated on making sure
Al-Qaeda’s Somali-led affiliate, the al-Shabaab, cannot violently disrupt the
US presidential visit this week.
“The
American president is a high value target so an attack, or even an attempt,
would raise the profile of al-Shabaab,” warned Richard Tutah, a Nairobi-based
security and terrorism expert.
Mitigating
that is an overwhelming security presence in the capital. “The level of
security is suffocating,” said Abdullahi Halakhe, a regional security analyst.
President
Barack Obama is due to address an international business summit in Nairobi, an
event the US embassy itself warned could be “a target for terrorists”. The
closely-held details of the security arrangements for the three-day visit are a
source of endless fascination and speculation in the Kenyan media.
Hundreds of
American security personnel have arrived in Kenya in recent weeks. Kenyan media
reports that three hotels—the Sankara, Villa Rosa Kempinski and
Intercontinental have been scouted by the Secret Service.
This week
the distinctive Osprey tilt-rotor aircrafts, usually stationed at the US
military base in Djibouti, flew over Nairobi alongside a White Hawk chopper
with presidential insignia, causing much excitement on social media.
Other
military helicopters have been flown in reportedly from a US Special Forces
facility at Kenya’s coastal Manda Bay base, which serves as a launchpad
for raids on al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Kenya is
also playing its part. Nairobi’s police commander Benson Kibue said on Wednesday
that 10,000 police officers, roughly one quarter of the entire national force would
be deployed to the capital.
Kibue also
said that a series of main roads would be closed on Friday and Saturday, in a
move that will paralyse the traffic-clogged city.
The Kenya
Civil Aviation Authority announced that national airspace will be closed for
50-minutes on arrival and 40-minutes on departure, unwittingly publicising the
exact dates and timings of Obama’s travel. However, the White House has downplayed the
significance of the “leak”, with National Security House Adviser Susan Rice
saying it would “in no way affect our approach and plans”.
“Often times
a lot of this information is not entirely accurate,” she said. “In no way is it
disturbing our plans.”
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