President Obama's all smiles as he catches up with long-lost family on official visit to Kenya

President Barack Obama was all smiles on Friday evening as he sat down for dinner with Kenyan relatives on a state visit to the country's capital.

Not long after touching down in Nairobi, Obama was taken to a hotel where he met fellow Obamas including his half-sister and step-grandmother.

The President was seen smiling at a table between Mama Sarah Obama, whom he calls 'granny', and Auma Obama, who was born to his father's first wife.

Beaming: A happy Barack Obama joined a family dinner with his step-grandmother Mama Sarah, to his left, and half-sister Auma, to his right, at a family meal in Nairobi, Kenya

State occasion: The family gathering came as Obama made his first visit to Kenya as president

Big meeting: Obama went to the meal in Nairobi at the hotel where he was staying soon after landing in the capital

Some three-dozen people were at the meal sitting round the President at the Villa Rosa Kempinski hotel, where he is staying on his brief visit to the country.

The luxury property can accommodate some 500 diners and has a host of restaurants as well as a plush presidential suite on its tenth floor.

He headed straight to the family occasion after disembarking from Air Force One late Friday night, where he was met by Auma as well as a group of high-ranking Kenyan officials.

Included among them were president Uhuru Kenyatta, who joked with Obama as he sat at a desk rolled up in front of the presidential plane and signed a visitors' book for the nation.

Crowds of excited citizens crowded as close as possible to his heavily-guarded route and welcome him to their country.

Family reunion:  Obama is pictured above at Bairobi's airport hugging Auma, who met him along with the Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, right in a yellow tie

Together: Obama and Auma met when the president was a young man living in Chicago

Shooting the breeze: Obama shares a joke with Kenyatta, as he signs a visitors' book on a desk set up in front of his plane

Gift: Obama was given a bouquet of flower by Joan Wamaitha, and eight-year-old Kenyan girl, on his arrival 

Hours before Obama's arrival, police blocked major roads and emptied streets of traffic in the usually congested capital as part of a huge security operation. The al Qaeda-linked group was behind an attack on Nairobi's upscale Westgate shopping center in 2013, killing at least 67 people, as well as an attack in April at a Kenyan university near the Somali border that left 148 people dead

Back again: Obama visited Kenya when he was a senator, but has not returned since being elected

Landing: Obama is pictured disembarking on the first stop of his five-day visit to Africa, which will also see him head for Ethiopia

Greeted: Kenyatta and senior Kenyan military and government officials met Obama from the plane before escorting him into the capital city

In Nairobi, Obama will preside at a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, pay tribute to victims and survivors of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing and dine with Kenyatta, whose indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity largely barred Obama from visiting sooner. Charges have been dropped.

Deputy President William Ruto, still facing similar charges in The Hague-based court, was not at the airport reception ceremony. He denies having had a role in fomenting violence after the disputed 2007 election.

In the year before that vote, Obama visited Kenya when he was still a senator.

On this trip as president, he is not expected to travel to the village most closely associated with the family name and where his father is buried.

Big moment: Obama, pictured above walking with president Kenyatta, is the first U.S. president to visit Kenya

On the road: Part of Obama's motorcade is pictured above on its way through Nairobi

Big welcome: Workers are pictured above rolling out the red carpet for the President's visit