Once you set up AFRICOM (with a four star General), you've got to justify its existence. There's no point having a combatant command in Africa that does not fight, so you do a little bit of fighting, chalk up a few victories (Libya anyone?), then (in cooperation with Congressmen who want a bit of that budget spent in their districts), you fight the next round of budget battles.
Afghanistan is drawing down, Iraq is almost a closed chapter and the focus of national security strategy is now the Pacific. Where does that leave the Army and Marines? They cannot afford to be the big losers in the next round of budget cuts, so they will tempted to chalk up some spectacular victories in Africa.
France has been doing this sort of thing in Sub-Saharan Africa for the past fifty years. They've intervened militarily in Africa at least twenty times since 1960. They are getting a bit tired, and your Government in its infinite wisdom wants to take their place.
Meanwhile, the Chinese are furiously building infrastructure like:
a. Nairobi-Thika Expressway Kenya
I agree with you, and we need to continue to make the case for the proper contest with the Chinese.
US Africa Combat Command was indeed created by Bush at a time when Al Qaeda was very active in East Africa, and at a time when the US government ( Clinton in particular) had been criticized for not acting to prevent tutsi vs hutu genocide in Rwanda. Indeed the Congressional Black Congress was instrumental in pressuring Bush to create AFRICOM.
Obama intends to MIS-use US Africa Combat Command to forward his own neo-colonialist brand of radical politics in Africa, which will set tribe against tribe.....just as it did in Kenya....and then he will back his own brand of dictator.This will get the African people nowhere.
Having said that, I do think the AFRICOM does have its humanitarian uses, but doubt that this is the use which Obama intends, or else he would be competing with the Chinese, brick for brick, instead of creating power vacuums to be filled with Obama ideologues.
Time will tell, and Obama is already in the process of defining yet another “enemy” ...lets see the action he takes after doing so. I wish that action would be building infrastructure but I am very doubtful that will be the result.