Obama holds talks with Kenya president and controversial deputy

Nairobi

US President Barack Obama opened talks with Kenya's government on Saturday including the country's outspokenly homophobic deputy president, who is on trial for crimes against humanity.

Obama was welcomed with a guard of honour at State House by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and also shook hands with Deputy President William Ruto.

Ruto, who is still on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague accused of crimes against humanity during post-election violence in 2007-08, was in the meeting hall in State House. He recently described gays as "dirty" and that there was "no room for homosexuality" in Kenya.

Asked whether gay rights would be discussed, Kenyatta had said ahead of the talks that it was "a non-issue".

But Obama, in an interview with the BBC, said he was "not a fan of discrimination and bullying of anybody", and that this would be "part and parcel of the agenda". Kenyatta said security would be top of his agenda for the talks. Kenya has suffered a string of attacks by Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants.

"We recognise various challenges that confront us, which I believe that working together we will be able to overcome, chief among these is the security issue," Kenyatta said before the closed-door talks began.

"No single country can deal with this problem alone, we need to partner. It is a global threat that knows no boundaries," Kenyatta said. Obama said Washington took a close interest because what happened on the continent had a far wider impact.

"We take an interest in Africa, because what happens in Africa is going to impact the world, some of the fastest growing economies are in Africa, some of our closest partners," he said.

"The challenges of terrorism are ones that have to be addressed, but the opportunities for growth and prosperity, and people-to-people exchanges, and tourism and scientific and educational exchanges, those are the things that the people of Africa are most hungry for."

Obama is making his first visit to Kenya, his father's birthplace, since becoming president. The visit was long delayed by Kenyatta's indictment by the ICC. Those charges, linked to post-election ethnic violence, were suspended last year -- in part, prosecutors say, because the Kenyan government thwarted the investigation by intimidating or paying off witnesses.

Obama also spoke about Kenya making the "transition away from ethnicity and division toward an increasing sense of national unity."