Monday, July 13, 2015

Be warned: Hosting most powerful man on earth is a nerve-wracking experience

SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2015
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and US President Barack Obama with their spouses wave to the crowds when the Obamas visited Tanzania in 2013. FILE PHOTO
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and US President Barack Obama with their spouses wave to the crowds when the Obamas visited Tanzania in 2013. FILE PHOTO 
By TOM MOSOBA
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In less than 14 days, Kenya will host President Barack Obama. The visit will no doubt be a Herculean task for a country on the frontline of the war against terrorism.Nation journalist TOM MOSOBA covered the visit by the world’s most powerful man to Tanzania in 2013 and brings you his experience — and what Kenyans, especially those living in Nairobi, can expect.
When US President Barack Obama visited Tanzania two years ago, I tagged onto the editorial team that would cover the visit.
I had a ringside seat watching the excitement grow among Tanzanians — in line to receive the most powerful man on the globe. As we prepared to welcome the trailblazing, once-in-a-generation personality, our City of Peace (Dar es Salaam), literally came to a standstill. President Obama’s trip had to be safe and incident free … at all costs.
Covering the state visit — between July 1 and 2, 2013 — was my second such assignment as a journalist. Before that there was the trip by Mr Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, who came to Tanzania towards the end of his term in office in early 2008 to sign a five-year $700 million Millennium Challenge Compact with the government.
Owing to Tanzania’s political stability, perceived low levels of corruption and huge unexploited natural resources, a host of global leaders have courted it as a strategic partner in a turbulent region.
In quick succession, Dar es Salaam has hosted an array of powerful leaders, including then President Bill Clinton — the first sitting US President to set foot in Tanzania — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr Xi chose Tanzania as his first stop at the start of a three-nation Africa tour within 10 days of assuming office in early 2013. He flew in directly from Russia. Congo and South Africa were the other countries he visited.
But it was the visit by President Obama that blew my mind. It was a roller-coaster experience. Kenyans, especially those living in Nairobi, can expect their lives to be turned upside down when the president of the most powerful country on earth comes calling. From the organisers’ point of view, nothing will be left to chance; nothing will be taken for granted.
The Tanzania government held day and night meetings to meticulously plan how to impress the leader who had captured the world’s imagination by becoming the first African-American to be elected president of the world’s super power.
Additionally, Mr Obama’s choice of Tanzania during his short sojourn in East Africa was a “homecoming” of sorts, as his father is Kenyan. Dar did not take the honour lightly. It threw all its might to reciprocate Obama’s decision to skip his father’s homeland in favour of a neighbour during his first trip to the region as US president.
Days before Obama landed in Dar es Salaam from South Africa for a one-night sleep-over, the city of nearly five million people was turned upside down.
Normal life was disrupted as extreme steps were taken to clean up the city. Virtually impregnable measures enforced by both the US advance teams that guard the president and his entourage, and by local security personnel, made it literally impossible for ordinary citizens to move around.
Vendors and hawkers were evicted from key roads in a clean-up and a security blitz that began over a week before Mr Obama arrived.
Many livelihoods were disrupted after kiosks and stalls were razed. The stalls were demolished under the watchful eye of American Secret Service agents.
Beggars were forcibly evicted from city streets and trucked to their home districts.
Roads were quickly carpeted and dusty ones literally mopped around the clock. For a moment, Dar was dustless!
CLOSED FOR HOURS
During the two days that Obama was in town, roads such as Mandela Expressway, Nyerere, Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Morogoro were closed for several hours, inconveniencing commuters.
These three main roads connect all other passageways in the city. Thousands of commuters had to walk to and from their places of work. Motorists who ventured out were stuck in traffic for hours.
The government actually asked those without urgent business in town to stay away. Those residing upcountry were implored not to travel to the city.
Boda boda operators were chased off the streets while public transport vehicles terminated their routes far away from their usual drop-off points.
The US unleashed its own show of might before and during the time its leader was in town. A team of security officers arrived nearly a month before the trip.
They inspected the airport, mounted security cameras and other equipment atop buildings near the airport, and inspected and secured all hotels that were to host the visitors. Delegations of press corps and business people took up whole hotels for at least three days.
All the city’s VIP hotels were fully booked days in advance. It did not help matters that Obama’s visit coincided with a conference hosted by a charity led by former President Bush and his wife Laura.
Then Obama’s elite security team started making its presence felt. Sophisticated manoeuvres were made days to his arrival for the final leg of his second African trip, the longest since his election in 2008.
Discreet Secret Service officers swarmed the city, taking turns to patrol key roads and buildings. They were not difficult to spot — not by one with a keen eye or by an inquisitive journalist.
They also set up camp in our newsrooms for between a month and two weeks. They were from the US, Europe, Canada, Australia and even South Africa and sought “field attachment” for short periods ostensibly to learn Tanzanian culture and the media landscape.
Being involved in news production, it was interesting to see these “journalists” taking keen interest on what major story was being published and who-was-who in the gate-keeping role. They also made quick contacts with key people in the newsrooms.
In one instance, one of the “journalists” penned a thorny piece on Tanzania and the debate on homosexuality. It was a topic that would stir huge debate.
Suffice it to say that the “field study” ended as soon as Obama left town. Later, word filtered back that some of the editorial pieces written by the “visiting journalists” were meant to gauge public and media perception of issues the president intended to talk about.
Prior to this, those of us assigned to cover the momentous event were vetted. Our names were submitted well in advance for scrutiny and approval by at least three different organs — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State House and the US embassy in Dar es Salaam.
Due to the huge number of press corps accompanying the president, local journalists were given just a few slots. Those cleared would be literally tethered to one point. No reporter — except one or two photo-journalists embedded in the president’s entourage — was allowed to move from one place to the other.
For a people constantly bewailing the wanton waste espoused by its leaders, Tanzanians were awe-struck by Mr Obama’s entourage, not least a special motorcade flown in by huge cargo planes two days before his landing.
In the fleet were two identical black stretch limousines. There also were huge American Humvees for use as chase cars. Outriders cleared the way for the convoy that included the special forces guarding the president. The men in black — most of whom wore dark glasses — rode in the Humvees and in at least one open van. There was an ambulance in the convoy and a covered van with indiscernible content and mission.
HELICOPTERS
In the Indian Ocean off Dar an American warship was anchored around the clock. It served as a base for military helicopters and jets that circled the airspace intermittently before and during the tour by the US Commander in Chief.
One helicopter that was spotted several times resembled the green one that President Obama usually uses at home, dubbed Marine One.
On the day that Mr Obama was to arrive in Dar es Salaam, journalists and government officials cleared to be at the airport were ushered in six hours in advance. Each was shown where to stand and instructed to remain in that spot until the US leader landed.
Dar es Salaam airspace was then closed for three hours before the plane carrying the US First Family touched down at Julius Nyerere International Airport. This means the airspace was closed as soon as Obama’s aircraft took off from South Africa. The flight from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam normally takes about three hours.
Communication at the airport was jammed for most of the waiting period and US Secret Service personnel took charge of the air traffic control towers.
Snipers could be seen atop buildings overlooking the runway, which was also lined by armed men.
A black van with flashing lights would drive the length of the runaway every few minutes. An hour or so before, a plane carrying the accompanying press corps and members of the business delegation touched down.
The plane is of the same make and colour as the one normally used by the president. It could easily be deployed as a decoy. Then Air Force One landed. Calmly, President Obama and First Lady Michelle alighted to the ecstatic adulations by entertaining troupes at the welcoming arena.
The convoy then drove to State House as excited crowds that had lined the city streets many hours earlier cheered.
The entourage arrived at about 3pm. Dramatic scenes were witnessed on the route from the airport, with secret service agents running along the streets minutes before the convoy arrived at each section where they were stationed.
President Obama did not at any time come out of his limousine, but waved through glass windows to the gathering crowds. The two stretch limousines were only a few metres apart, throwing off-balance people who did not know in which one he was riding.
That same day, Obama held meetings with members of the business community and, later, had a banquet at State House. At the hotel where he held talks with African investors, they and all the assigned journalists had checked in three hours before.
The whole hotel was taken over by US operatives, and everyone invited had to go through strict checks, including by sniffer dogs specially flown in for the task.
Everything carried by reporters was checked — pens, notebooks, cameras, whatever. These were placed on a single file that the sniffer dogs went through. Similar scrutiny was done on other people’s work tools. A single pen could be analysed for up to five minutes.
President Obama came inside after everybody else was seated. Photo-journalists were accorded 12 seconds to click away, then herded off. Inside the meeting room, the public address system was manned and operated by select people. Other than during the closed-door consultations and at the open State House press conference, no one was allowed to ask questions.
To date, it remains a secret where the President spent the night. The Hyatt Regency Hotel that had been booked for the delegation was a no-go zone. There were reports that Mr Obama may have slept at the fortified US embassy quarters.
The next day, as President Jakaya Kikwete waved the final goodbye to Mr Obama at the airport, the City of Dar es Salaam heaved a collective sigh of relief. Hosting the most powerful man on earth is a nerve-wracking experience.
Kenyans, especially those living in Nairobi, cannot expect less.
For me, it was memorable to come so close to the man who re-wrote American history and galvanised Africa in ways no one had done before.
Mr Mosoba is an editor with The Citizen, a Nation Media Group newspaper published in Tanzania
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Barack-Obama-Visit-Tanzania/-/1056/2784366/-/43meuuz/-/index.html

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