President Obama in Kenya: Nairobi speech to entrepreneurs praises Africa's economic potential

During the first full day of his Kenya visit on 25 July US President Barack Obama praised Africa's economic and business potential in a speech in Nairobi.

"Africa is on the move… People are being lifted out of poverty, incomes are up [and] the middle class is growing," he told an audience of business people.

Later in the day Obama is scheduled to visit a memorial to the 1998 US embassy bombing, prior to talks with Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta.

His first visit as president to his father's home country started on 24 July. The Kenyan media has described the trip as a "homecoming". Large crowds cheered Obama's motorcade as it drove away from the airport.

During the morning of 25 July, the US president attended the opening of a Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi.

Obama told an audience of young entrepreneurs and business people that Africa needed to be a "future hub of global growth". He added that governments needed to ensure that corruption could not flourish.

He said that since his last visit Kenya had made "incredible progress".

"When I was here in Nairobi 10 years ago, it looked different from what it looks today," he said.

Terrorism talks

Later Obama will visit the memorial park at the site of the US embassy attack, which was blamed on al-Qaeda. During the bombing more than 200 people died, including 12 Americans and 34 local embassy staff.

A simultaneous attack on the US embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 11 people.

Obama will also hold bilateral talks with President Kenyatta. Security and Kenya's counterterrorism strategies are set to feature.

In 2013, the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabab killed at least 67 people in an attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall. Earlier this year the group attacked the university in Garissa, northern Kenya, and killed 148 people.

Besides his concerns with business and security, Obama has also pledged to deliver a "blunt message" to African leaders on gay rights and discrimination during his visit.