The $1.5 million car is a moving fortress with eight-inch thick steel plates, five-inch thick bulletproof glass, Kevlar-reinforced tyres, and a presidential blood bank in the boot.
The Beast is one of as many as 60 vehicles flown into Kenya for the visit, Kenya Airports Authority officials told The Standard newspaper, as snapped photos of the vehicles arriving on cargo planes were shared on social media.
– Fight against terror –
Obama’s three-nation tour of Africa in 2013 was estimated to have cost between $60-100 million.
A planning memo leaked to the Washington Post revealed that security measures for the visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania included a navy aircraft carrier moored offshore, fighter jets providing 24-hour air cover, more than a dozen armoured limousines flown in and sheets of bulletproof glass imported to protect the hotels where he stayed.
Bill Clinton’s 1998 six-nation Africa tour cost $42.8 million — not including Secret Service expenses which were classified — according to the US Government Accountability Office.
Three-quarters of those costs were incurred by the Department of Defence which flew 98 airlift missions taking equipment to Africa for the tour.
No US president has ever visited Kenya which, along with its neighbour Ethiopia — also due a presidential visit on this tour — is a crucial ally in fighting Islamic extremism emanating from Somalia.
The Shabaab has proved itself adept at launching low-tech assaults on soft targets such as Nairobi’s Westgate mall in 2013, Garissa’s university in April and small towns on Kenya’s coast, but it has failed to emulate the terrorist spectacular of 1998.
Obama is expected to visit the Nairobi bomb site during the Kenya leg of his trip.
In a televised address on Wednesday, ahead of Obama’s visit, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged the threat posed by terrorists.
“Our country has endured the attacks of depraved, ideological criminals,” he said. “We have fought them unrelentingly, and they know, as well as we do, that they will lose.”
Kenyatta added that there is “very close cooperation” with the United States and “the fight against terror will be central” to his scheduled meeting with Obama.
In a press conference in Washington this month Obama bemoaned the heavy security restrictions during his visit to Kenya, his father’s homeland.
“I will be honest with you, visiting Kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president, because I can actually get outside of the hotel room or a conference centre,” Obama said.
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