US issues Kenya travel warning ahead of Obama visit

Nairobi

The United States has warned its citizens in Kenya ahead of visit by President Barack Obama of the risk of terrorist attacks, singling out a conference that Obama is due to address.

The US president is scheduled to give a speech to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) in Nairobi, which opens on July 24.

"As with all large public events, there is the opportunity for criminal elements to target participants and other visitors," the US State Department said in a statement.

"Large-scale public events such as this summit can also be a target for terrorists. US citizens should maintain a high level of security awareness."

Kenya has been hit by a string of attacks by the Somali-led Shebab insurgents.

In April, the Al-Qaeda-linked militants massacred 148 people at the region's Garissa University, most of them students.

In 2013, four Shebab gunmen killed at least 67 people in an assault on the Westgate mall in the capital Nairobi.

The US embassy in Nairobi, in its previous warning last issued in May, said its citizens should be "aware of continuing and recently heightened threats from terrorism and the high rate of violent crime in some areas."

Obama's visit later this month will be his fourth to Africa since becoming US president, but his first to Kenya since taking office in 2009, his father's birthplace.