In Kenya, Obama Focused on Counterterrorism

President Obama departed this week for his first trip to Kenya since taking office.  He will meet with the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, and attend the sixth annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi.  The focus of the trip is strengthening U.S.-Kenya counterterrorism cooperation and promoting Kenya’s economic growth.

Obama and Kenyatta will discuss increasing U.S. assistance to Kenya’s security services, including improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities to track terrorism threats emanating from neighboring Somalia, home of the violent militant group al-Shabaab.  According to data cited by New York Times, al-Shabab has killed more than 600 people in Kenya since 2012, including the assault on a Nairobi shopping center that killed 67 people. 

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