I am a proud Kenyan American President- Barack Obama says in a powerful speech

By Wesley kipng'enoh (@Wess_kipp)

Barack Obama has delivered a touching speech that many Kenyans will remember for a long time.

“Wakenya, I am happy to be here today” he told the six thousand Kenyans at the Safaricom Indoor Arena ,Sunday afternoon.

Known for his catchy speeches, Obama clearly has quite some prominent Kenyan in him as he mentioned few Kiswahili words.

“ I am proud to be the first American president to visit Kenya…and yeah  I am proud to be the first Kenyan American President.” Obama said as excited crowd received his words with deafening cheers.

Having promised to visit Kenya before his term comes to an end; Obama delivered his promise and has made it to Kenya just a about a year before his term as US president ends

In the forty minutes speech, he recalled how humble his start was: ” I remember eating sukuma wiki and drinking tea when I visited my father’s home.”

He mentions one incident when he got to Kenya two decades ago.  When he landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport something hit him.  “My name made sense for the first time in my life” Obama says recognizing the uniqueness of his name abroad.

The US president acknowledged that indeed they had quite a lot of things in common with President Kenyatta.  “Our fathers having grown in colonial times in Kenya had their own ambitions”. He however adds that the two old men would never imagine that their sons would be at the citadel of leadership in two countries thousands of kilometers apart.

Barack Obama has been in the country since Friday 24th for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit(GES)and was addressing Kenyans at Safaricom Indoor Arena at Moi Sports Center Kasarani.