Businessman Chris Kirubi snubs invite to meet Obama

by Capital FM 

Kenyan Businessman Chris Kirubi is among top regional investors invited to meet US President Barack Obama during tour of Tanzania next week.

Kirubi who is also the Chairman of Capital Group Limited has been invited to be part of the business audience for the US President at the Hyatt Regency in Dar es Salaam on Monday.

However, the astute businessman said he may turn down the invitation owing to the fact that Obama has once again snubbed Kenya in his three-nation African tour.

Kirubi posted on his Facebook page: “After reflecting hard on the invitation by the organisers of Barack Obama’s visit to Africa by passing Kenya, I’m just wondering if I’m any more special than all the other Kenyans. I seriously feel like I can only do what he has done to Kenya.”

He was basing his comments on widespread uproar by Kenyans who were unhappy that Obama was sidestepping Kenya – the homeland of his late father – and going to neighbouring Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa.

“Should I not skip the invitation in solidarity with all Kenyans who have been ignored on his trip to Africa and more so to his ancestral home? Does it make sense going to meet him in other people’s country? I am very proud to be Kenyan and hopefully one day, Barack Obama will also be very proud to have Kenyan roots in his blood,” Kirubi’s Facebook post read.

Stephen Hayes, the President and CEO of Corporate Council on Africa who sent out the invite says Obama will give remarks on trade and investment between the United States and Africa and will also speak on East Africa business relations.

The business audience will be limited to specific regional business leaders.

Before the address, the president will have a closed meeting with about 25 carefully selected American and African CEOs.

Obama leaves Washington on Wednesday June 26, on the first leg of a three nation tour meant to emphasize economic potential and democratic development, in east, south and western sub Saharan Africa.

He will stop first in Senegal, where he will meet President Macky Sall and pay an emotive visit to Goree Island and a museum and memorial to Africans caught up in the slave trade.

Then he will move onto Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday 30 and the next day in Pretoria to hold talks and a press conference with President Jacob Zuma.

Obama will stay overnight in Johannesburg and Cape Town during his trip, and plans to visit Robben Island, where Mandela was once imprisoned.

The final leg of Obama’s journey will take him to Tanzania, where his program includes talks and a press conference with President Jakaya Kikwete and a visit to the Ubungo power plant.

Obama will also lay a wreath at a memorial to 11 people killed in the US embassy bombing in 1998.

The US president was eagerly expected to visit Kenya but the White House has now explained that the ICC cases facing Kenya’s top leaders are the reason why he will skipping the homeland of his late father.