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Hello and welcome to this BBC news special.

I'm John Sopel at the White House where I've had an exclusive interview with the President.

It was a wide-ranging interview covering issues like Iran, Syria, but also domestic

concerns like gun control and race. But we started on Africa and in particular Kenya.

Given the al-Shaba tax on the Westgate-Mowl and the Gersse University,

I'm sure your Secret Service could have suggested other countries for you to visit.

But you wanted to go to Kenya.

Well, I think it is important, first of all, that the President of the United States

underscores our commitment to partnering with countries around the world and that we're not intimidated by terrorist organizations.

Second, the counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and Kenya and Uganda and

other countries in East Africa is very strong and part of the subject of the visit

is to continue to strengthen those ties to make them more effective.

Third, as I wind down my presidency,

I've already had a number of visits to Africa. But this gives me an opportunity to focus on a region

that I have not been visiting as president and I'm also going to have the opportunity

to talk to the African Union so I'll be the first US president to not only visit Kenya and Ethiopia

but also to address the continent as a whole building off the African summit that we did here

which was historic and has I think deepened the kinds of already strong

relationships that we have across the continent.

...