As we marvel at the show of might, let’s not lose focus on why Obama is here

Power behaves in its own strange ways. The Igbo people of Nigeria say that power is like the great Iroko tree. You cannot plant it. It simply chooses where to grow. When it has found its home, it behaves as it pleases. Nobody can stop it from doing what it wants to do. If you come in its way, it will mess you up. And if you have never known what real power can do, ask the people of Nairobi. US President Obama’s visit to Kenya this week is most telling.

We have been behaving like the people of the unyielding little town that Nikolai Gogol wrote about in 1836 in the play ‘The Government Inspector’. Ever since it became clear that President Obama was coming to Nairobi, we have fallen over ourselves with a flurry of activities. You would think we were desperately trying to cover up our misdeeds, ahead of the government inspector’s arrival.