Obama with his half sister Auma Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama dined with his step grandmother, his sister and other extended family members
after arriving in Kenya for his first presidential visit to his father’s
homeland on Friday.

Obama’s plane, Air Force One, landed in the evening in
the Kenyan capital, where he will co-host a conference on boosting
entrepreneurs in Africa before traveling on to Ethiopia.

After being greeted by President Uhuru Kenyatta and other
top Kenyan officials, Obama was whisked through the capital.

Hours before Obama’s arrival, police blocked major roads
and emptied streets of traffic in the usually congested capital as part of a
huge security operation.

In the darkness, excited Kenyans lined parts of the route
to his hotel, cheering as Obama’s motorcade passed by.

Once at his hotel, the president sat down with the woman
he calls “Granny,” also called “Mama Sarah,” who helped
raise his now deceased father as a child.

Obama’s half sister Auma Obama and a few dozen other
extended family members related were also present.

Wearing a suit and tie, he chatted amiably with the large
family seated at long tables at a restaurant inside the hotel where he is
staying.

Obama’s family connection to Kenya has cast a trip that
is otherwise likely to focus on trade and counterterrorism issues in a personal
light. He is not expected to travel to the village where his father is buried.

Kenya is a vital ally of the West in the battle against
the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab, and Obama is likely to focus talks in
Nairobi on security cooperation.

The al Qaeda-linked group was behind an attack on
Nairobi’s upscale Westgate shopping center in 2013, killing at least 67 people,
as well as an attack in April at a Kenyan university near the Somali border
that left 148 people dead.

In Nairobi, Obama will preside at a Global
Entrepreneurship Summit, pay tribute to victims and survivors of the 1998 U.S.
embassy bombing and dine with Kenyatta, whose indictment by the International
Criminal Court for crimes against humanity largely barred Obama from visiting
sooner. Charges have been dropped.

Deputy President William Ruto, still facing similar
charges in The Hague-based court, was not at the airport reception ceremony. He
denies having had a role in fomenting violence after the disputed 2007
election.

In the year before that vote, Obama visited Kenya when he
was still a senator.