Kenyans have been a happy lot since it became official that US President Barack Obama will be visiting the country in July. All manner of preparations have been made to welcome the world leader, including redoing roads and giving various infrastructural facilities facelifts.
But these happy faces will soon turn into frowns with a new directive that all adult Kenyans carry their national identity cards everywhere around town, as a measure to ensure security for the world’s most powerful man.
Thousands of security personnel are expected to carry out swoops to arrest individuals without national identification cards ahead of President Barack Obama’s arrival next week.
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The government plans to deploy nearly 15,000 officers in Nairobi and its environs from the regular and Administration police, the GSU, Prisons, Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service rangers and National Youth Service personnel to aid in ensuring that all who walk around are eligible Kenyans by registration.
Carrying identification cards and flashing them whenever demanded by a police officer could prove difficult to the many who use their job cards as identification. The police have been rounding up street families and getting them off the public view, especially in Westlands, where the Obama team has taken over two hotels.
Obama is expected in the country on July 25 and 26 and will alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta address the Sixth Global Entrepreneurship Summit mid-morning on July 25.
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