Malik Obama (left) with US President Barack Obama (centre) and other
members of the family at the White House in 2009. Photo/FILE
His half brother may be the most powerful man in the world but that stardust seemed not to rub off on Malik Obama as he failed miserably to win a county gubernatorial seat in Kenya's recently concluded polls.
Obama, 54, who shares a father with United States
President Barack Obama, won just 2,792 votes -- some 140,000 behind the
final winner -- in his bid to claim the seat for his home area in
western Kenya.
"He was not the winner but at least he competed,"
said Benson Mughatsia, returning officer for Siaya county, where Obama's
ancestral home is located. "He was not last but he was still a long way
off."
Standing well over six feet, Obama, who describes
himself as an economist and a financial analyst, told AFP on the
campaign trail that he would use his contacts with Washington to bring
development to the rural backwater he hoped to govern.
"Why would my people settle for a local connection when they have a direct line to the White House," he said.
Campaigning under the slogan "Obama here, Obama there", he said he dreamed of bringing chains like McDonald's to the area and launching a bid for the presidency.
Obama, who was refusing to take calls from
journalists Sunday, might have been undone by his much-vaunted refusal
to give handouts, a common feature of Kenyan election campaigns where
voters collect small sums of money to attend rallies.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama is facing a possible
diplomatic headache in how to deal with Kenya's new president elect
Uhuru Kenyatta, who faces trial at the International Criminal Court in
The Hague.