The people of Uganda sang happy birthday to President Barack Obama, who turned 55 on Thursday, at a town hall meeting of young African leaders.
The birthday song for Obama, a son of a Kenyan, took place at the Omni Shoreham Hotel on Wednesday, where Obama joked with the exuberant crowd that he was “disappointed with the lack of enthusiasm. Everybody is so shy and quiet.”
Obama created the Young African Leaders Initiative six years ago in order to have people of Africa connect and network with each other. He said that Across Africa, more than 250,000 people have joined the network, which offers online classes. He said the network has offered nearly 150,000 certificates from those courses.
While Obama is certainly a young president, he is not the youngest. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest-ever elected president at 42. Obama was elected in 2008 at age 47. He is the fifth youngest president to be elected.