Malik Obama says he will use his connections to fight poverty and unemployment in western Kenya.
When your step-brother is president of the United States of America, name dropping takes on a whole new meaning.
President Barack Obama’s step-brother will be testing his political chops in Kenya soon and wasted no time aligning himself with the “other” Obama who lives in the White House.
According to Bloomberg, Malik Obama, 54, recently announced his candidacy for the governorship of Siaya in western Kenya and says he will use his relationship with President Obama to address issues like poverty and unemployment.
“Siaya county is facing a lot of problems from poor infrastructure to poverty due to bad leadership,” he said. “I will change this if elected.”
Siaya has a population of nearly 842,000 people and a poverty rate of 35.3 percent with some of the highest rates of HIV and malaria in the country.
Kenya’s March general elections will be the country’s first since 2007 when a dispute over the outcome led to violence that caused the deaths of 1,100 people and the evacuation of nearly 350,000.
Although he may have a special U.S. connection, Obama will likely face another formidable political sibling: Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s brother, Oburu Oginga, who is seeking the nomination of his party, the Orange Democratic Movement.
Obama will run as an independent candidate.
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(Photo: AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
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