OBAMA 'UNAWARE OF ILLEGAL AUNT'!
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said he was not aware that he had an Kenyan aunt living illegally in the United States.
The Associated Press news agency says Zeituni Onyango lost a bid for asylum four years ago.
The Obama campaign issued a statement: "Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."
According to AP, Ms Onyango is the half-sister of Mr Obama's late father.
She has been living in public housing in Boston, it adds.
AP says its information about Ms Onyango, 56, is based on two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official.
Ms Onyango, referred to as "Auntie Zeituni" in Mr Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave America by a US immigration judge who had denied her asylum request, a "person familiar with the matter" told AP late on Friday.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because "no-one was authorised to discuss Onyango's case".
According to AP, Ms Onyango has not been mentioned in the presidential candidate's speeches and "is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life".
Mr Obama's father grew up in Kenya herding goats but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii where he met and married Mr Obama's mother, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.
Barack Obama Senior left his son when he was two years old and lived most of his life in Kenya, where he fathered six other sons and a daughter with three other wives. He died in a car crash in 1982.
The presidential hopeful first met his father's side of the family when he travelled to Africa 20 years ago.
Describing the visit in his memoir, he talks of "Auntie Zeituni" being "a proud woman".
Mr Obama's campaign was quoted by AP as saying he had seen her a few times since that meeting, beginning with a return trip to Kenya with his future wife, Michelle, in 1992.
Ms Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Mr Obama's invitation about nine years ago, the campaign added, stopping to visit friends on the East Coast before returning to Kenya.
The Associated Press news agency says Zeituni Onyango lost a bid for asylum four years ago.
The Obama campaign issued a statement: "Senator Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws be followed."
According to AP, Ms Onyango is the half-sister of Mr Obama's late father.
She has been living in public housing in Boston, it adds.
AP says its information about Ms Onyango, 56, is based on two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official.
Ms Onyango, referred to as "Auntie Zeituni" in Mr Obama's memoir, was instructed to leave America by a US immigration judge who had denied her asylum request, a "person familiar with the matter" told AP late on Friday.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because "no-one was authorised to discuss Onyango's case".
According to AP, Ms Onyango has not been mentioned in the presidential candidate's speeches and "is not someone who has been part of the public discussion about his personal life".
Mr Obama's father grew up in Kenya herding goats but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii where he met and married Mr Obama's mother, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.
Barack Obama Senior left his son when he was two years old and lived most of his life in Kenya, where he fathered six other sons and a daughter with three other wives. He died in a car crash in 1982.
The presidential hopeful first met his father's side of the family when he travelled to Africa 20 years ago.
Describing the visit in his memoir, he talks of "Auntie Zeituni" being "a proud woman".
Mr Obama's campaign was quoted by AP as saying he had seen her a few times since that meeting, beginning with a return trip to Kenya with his future wife, Michelle, in 1992.
Ms Onyango visited the family in Chicago on a tourist visa at Mr Obama's invitation about nine years ago, the campaign added, stopping to visit friends on the East Coast before returning to Kenya.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Labels: Barak-Obama Aunt U.S. Boston Asylum Kenya Chicago Tourist East-Coast Africa
posted by jackaranda at 4:43 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home