NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — United States President Barack Obama is urging citizens in his father’s homeland of Kenya to reject intimidation and violence in next month’s national elections.

Obama released that message in a YouTube video on Tuesday in which he used Swahili greetings — the common language in Kenya — to open and close his message.

Kenya goes to the polls on March 4 to vote for president and other offices. It is the first national election since the 2007 presidential vote devolved into nationwide violence that killed more than 1,000 people.

Obama said the elections are a moment for the people of Kenya to come together and show the world “that you are not just a member of a tribe or ethnic group, but citizens of a great and proud nation.”

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.