President Obama’s Half-Brother Malik Obama To Run For Governor In Kenya

Apparently, politics is all in the family. Malik Obama, president Barack Obama’s older half-brother, announced yesterday that he will run for governor in the Kenyan county of Siaya.

The elder Obama brother announced his candidacy as an independent in a rally on Sunday, according toBloomberg. Of his platform, Malik Obama states, “Siaya county is facing a lot of problems from poor infrastructure to poverty due to bad leadership,” Obama said, according to Bloomberg. “I will change this if elected.”

The polls will be open in Kenya for the people to elect a new president, parliament, and regional representatives. The March 4 elections will be the first since 2007, when violence ensued over the outcome of the votes. The deadly post-election violence “triggered ethnic fighting,” leaving more than 1,100 people dead. At least 350,000 people were forced to flee their homes, according to Bloomberg.

Malik Obama, 54, who shares a father with the President of the United States, will not run unopposed. Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s brother, Oburu Oginga, will also be running for governor of Siaya. He represents the Orange Democratic Movement. Siaya holds a population of over 800,000 people.

Violence has already erupted in the country. Abba Gullet, the head of the Kenya Red Cross, reported that by August 2012 at least 200 people had already died in pre-vote violence.

“It’s about governorship, it’s about senator-ship, it’s about members of parliament, and women representative, and boundaries of communities that have co-existed for centuries,” Gullet reportedly told The Associated Press. Gullet noted that two out of the four elections since 1992 have been “marred by violence.”

Another of the president’s half-brothers, George Obama, made headlines when he was slated to appear in the anti-Obama documentary, “2016: Obama’s America.” George Obama has also written and published a book, titled Homeland.