{{U.S. President Barack Obama’s message of hope and change has inspired his half-brother Malik to launch a political career of his own, with his eye on elections in Kenya in March.}}<\/p>\n
“If my brother is doing great things for people in the United States, why can’t I do great things for Kenyans here?” Malik Obama told Reuters in the village of Kogelo, President Obama’s ancestral homeland.<\/p>\n
Malik, 54, is running for governorship of the rural Siaya county as an independent candidate.<\/p>\n
His sibling’s message resonates with a Kenyan electorate angry over a political class widely regarded as greedy and corrupt.<\/p>\n
However, the odds are stacked against lone candidates in a country where ideology is trumped by tribe or clan ties. This is the first time independents have been permitted to run in an election after a constitutional change in 2010.<\/p>\n
For Obama, the inspiration comes from elsewhere.
\n“He is an inspiration to me and I feel that he is an embodiment of my father’s dream,” he said of the U.S. leader.<\/p>\n
“All he told me is \u2018brother, it is not an easy thing to get into public office. Just have a thick skin because people will be targeting you. The media will be saying this and that. There will be people who love you and people who won’t love you’.”<\/p>\n
He said his younger brother has flourished by following the footsteps of their father, Barack Obama Snr – the first African to attend the University of Hawaii before returning home to work in the senior echelons of the Kenyan civil service.<\/p>\n
“The old and tested way has not really worked for us. Right now we need a bold, radical and fresh approach,” he said.<\/p>\n
Running late for the interview, Obama apologized, explaining he had to stop his car several times to talk to locals, who would routinely flag him down for greetings.<\/p>\n
He says his race in the election is motivated by a desire to foster economic development and to answer the call of duty.<\/p>\n
Obama, who said he is a polygamist with 10 children, has a campaign team that includes some family members and volunteers. He is unsure if the big name recognition he brings to the race will put him at an advantage.<\/p>\n
President Obama visited Kogelo before his first election victory in 2008 which led to wild jubilation, dancing and parties. His November re-election was greeted with similar enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
yahoonews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{U.S. President Barack Obama’s message of hope and change has inspired his half-brother Malik to launch a political career of his own, with his eye on elections in Kenya in March.}} “If my brother is doing great things for people in the United States, why can’t I do great things for Kenyans here?” Malik Obama […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-5298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5298"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=5298"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=5298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}