US Vice-President Joe Biden’s three-day visit in Kenya is expected to cost American taxpayers at least US $ 2 million or Sh 160 million according to estimates of what his entourage entails.

The Sh 160 million covers costs for security, meals, lodging and other expenses.

The Vice President arrived in Nairobi, after 8pm, on a day that saw security heightened in the capital city.

He is expected to hold talks with President Mwai Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Speaker Kenneth Marende and members of the Parliamentary Caucus on Reforms.

Biden typically travels on a Boeing 757/C-32A aircraft designated as Air Force Two. (The president flies in Air Force One.)

Estimated operating costs for Air Force One are about $60,000 an hour Sh 4.8 million. We don’t have specific figure for Air Force Two, but it’s probably roughly similar. That means it would cost more than $1 million Sh 80 million just to transport Mr Biden and his retinue roundtrip Washington-Nairobi if he were flying only.

However, before coming to Kenya, Mr Biden had a stopover in Egypt and he is scheduled to go to South Africa from Kenya.

Air Force Two is as well outfitted as Air Force One. Facilities include a full stateroom as well as areas for briefings and dining. But Air Force Two is not exclusively the vice president’s plane; it’s shared, as needed, with members of the president’s cabinet.

At least one cargo plane accompanies the president when he travels, so that may well be the case for the vice president as well.

Such a plane is expected to transport special equipment such as an armoured limousine and communications gear.

Security for Biden – and for his wife, Jill – is the responsibility of the US Secret Service, which doesn’t reveal details about how it protects the vice president and president.

The Secret Service’s code name for Biden is Celtic. For Obama, it’s Renegade. For some reason, the Secret Service allows these code names to be made public.

In Washington, Biden has a fulltime staff of about 80, including a national security advisor and foreign policy specialists.

American taxpayers also spend more than Sh646 million shillings to protect Vice-President Joe Biden.

Biden, is the second most guarded American after President Barack Obama.

According to Secret Service director Mark Sullivan, that was the cost of the cost of protecting former Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Given the threat levels that Obama, the first African-American US president, brings to the job the cost of security could be much higher.

Biden’s security detail, especially outside America was strengthened following an incident during the opening ceremony in China when a mentally unstable Canadian man fooled the security service and approached him. The 48-year-old Canadian, used a fake accreditation card and went through several guard posts. He managed to come close to Biden at a distance of about 12 rows.

The security agency provides the Vice President transportation, advance work and other security as well as his family.

Wherever he goes, Bidden is said to cause major traffic jams.

And in Nairobi, a tight security cordon was yesterday thrown around the city as he arrived for a two day visit.

Intercontinental Hotel, where the Vice President will stay remained a no-go zone, surrounded by US embassy vehicles in tinted windows.

City Hall Way and Kaunda street have been closed to traffic. A tanker was parked right in the middle of City Hall Way near the intersection with Parliament Road. The same embassy vehicles were used to block Kaunda Street of traffic coming from town.

Around the hotel, the General Service Unit personnel and regular police were stationed strategically and also helped in directing traffic.

At the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the parking lot near the VIP lounge was cleared Sunday. Several black-suited men stood guard in the entire place. Many more were deployed inside and around the airport.

Biden is expected to deliver President Barack Obama’s message of support for constitution review process.

He will also discuss regional security issues especially the situations in Sudan and Somalia.
“Joe Biden, his presence as my top emissary is the same one that I’m expressing today: We want Kenya to succeed,” President Obama said in a June 1 interview for a Kenyan audience with state broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation.
“Regardless of what people think about this draft, whether the vote Yes or vote No – I just want to make sure that they participate in it. And that will be Joe Biden’s message as well,” the president added.

The security arrangements have however come at a cost to ordinary Nairobi motorists who complained bitterly yesterday.

Japheth Kamau, a motorist told the East African that he had been blocked from the hotel.

“I pleaded with the security men to even allow me in on foot but they could not budge. This is Kenya, not America and we should be allowed to enjoy our freedom,” he said.

For the next two days, Nairobi has to be accustomed to dozens of Secret Service agents wearing dark suits and earpieces, leading bomb-sniffing dogs through event venues and sweeping all equipment brought by journalists.

The advance security detail has been in town combing venues the VP will visit and the hotel he will stay from the time he arrives and the time he departs.

The entire hotel has been taken up by Biden’s party who are paying for all the rooms, the East African understands. The hotel management refused to comment on the matter insisting they could not divulge information about their clients to the public.

Security for President Obama, the VP and all top administration officials has been intensified due to threats from home-bred extremists, international terrorists, and the Bush shoe-throwing incident in Iraq in 2008.

Additional reporting by Jeff Otieno