By Andrew Ross
NAIROBI
U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to Kenya, the homeland of his father, in July to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Kenya's State House announced on Monday.
"The government of Kenya, together with the government of the United States, have agreed to co-host the global entrepreneurship summit here in Nairobi," presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu told reporters.
The two-day summit, to kick off on July 24, will be the first to be held in sub-Saharan Africa since the Global Entrepreneurship Summit was launched in 2009.
"Following an invitation from President Uhuru Kenyatta in December last year, I am also pleased to announce that President Barack Obama will travel to Kenya in July, where he will hold bilateral meetings with the president and participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit," he confirmed.
"His visit will build on the success of the August 2014 U.S.-Africa summit," said Esipisu.
Washington hosted African leaders in mid-2014.
Esipisu said Obama's visit would be his first as president – and the first by a sitting American president – to Kenya.
Back in 2009, eyebrows were raised after Obama skipped Kenya while on a visit to Ghana.
Later on, in 2013, he visited Tanzania, South Africa and Senegal – again skipping Kenya.
Obama, whose father is Kenyan, last visited Kenya in 2006 while he was still serving as a U.S. senator.
