Obama's Half-Brother Falls Ill In Kenya, May Have Cholera

KISUMU, Kenya — A Kenyan health official says President Barack Obama's older half-brother has been hospitalized with stomach pains and is being tested for cholera.

Local disease surveillance officer James Sande says that Malik Obama, a 51-year-old businessman, was taken to Siaya District Hospital in western Kenya on Tuesday evening. Sande says Obama's condition is improving enough for him to be discharged Thursday or Friday. Results of his cholera test have not come back.

There is an outbreak of cholera in the area and hospital official Frederick Osanya says a domestic employee of Obama's was hospitalized with the disease last week. Cholera is easily treated but can be deadly.

Obama family members in Kenya did not return phone calls seeking comment. Barack Obama has five Kenyan half-brothers and a half-sister.

Comments

[TJCole]

01:44 AM on 03/27/2009

No universal health care in Kenya ..?

Here either, good luck...nobody should die from cholera in a civilized world...

Unfortunately this world is anything but civilized..

[kdlaiusa]

01:37 AM on 03/27/2009

So are these half brother and half sister from his late father's first marriage in Kenya before he came to US and married Obama's late mother who was white?

[ZimboChick]

08:44 PM on 03/26/2009

Get well soon!!

[Schvenzlerman]

03:16 PM on 03/26/2009

Was that one okay? I tried not to refer to Odinga's elimination of political opponents by burning them alive in their churches or hacking them to death with machetes.

[Schvenzlerman]

03:15 PM on 03/26/2009

Golly, I sure hope that he gets well so that he can have lunch with Raila Odinga.

[obamanomics]

01:11 PM on 03/26/2009

Come on barry you are millionaire. help your brother out.

[Texas4Obama]

03:09 PM on 03/26/2009

Obama's sister Maya that lives in Hawaii is the only one that President Obama grew up with - he barely even knows any of the other ones.
They are all grown up and responsible for their own lives and own actions.

[jOke]

05:49 PM on 03/26/2009

..im sure you would.

[Schvenzlerman]

01:09 PM on 03/26/2009

If he can get well, he can hook up with Raila Odinga and burn some political opponents in their churches or attack women and children with machetes. Gotta love those Kenyan hardware stores.

[grata2ude]

01:06 PM on 03/26/2009

Isn't the MSM just so cute. A brother by a father that abandoned Barack and this makes news why? Cause they think it reflects on the President in some negative way.

[Rep0X]

05:07 PM on 03/26/2009

No, it reflects on the world in some negative way. At least it should! It's about the presence of opportunities In the US of A contra Kenya (Africa). THE PEOPLE OF Africa has been long forgotten by the money-, power-, resource-hungry people of the west! Africa is now nothing but a storage location for the west... Sad, but true!

[learnsomething]

12:52 PM on 03/26/2009

As the media sat on the sidelines and remained silent as Bush/Cheney tore this country and the world's economy apart, and remained silent. They have the gall to report every little tidbit of our new president's extended family around the world . Which has nothing to do with the United States.

[JulieSA]

01:04 PM on 03/26/2009

You don't think it's news when the president's brother gets sick? And what does this have to do with Bush/Cheney?

[alison22]

01:19 PM on 03/26/2009

It is NOT news when the presidents brother who lives overseas is sick!!!

[ywcachieve]

11:25 PM on 03/26/2009

It is a family matter. Not international news.

[learnsomething]

12:47 PM on 03/26/2009

Why are they messing with President's Obama's family in Kenya? That has nothing to do with us. His Kenyan family are not elected American officials.

[JulieSA]

01:06 PM on 03/26/2009

I'll remember that the next time there's a thousand comment thread on Sarah Palin's daughter's former fiance's mother.

[obamanomics]

01:11 PM on 03/26/2009

Palins kids aren't elected officials either, but it doesn't stop people around here from h8ting on them.

[AdamND]

01:20 PM on 03/26/2009

but she used them as props in her campaign so they are fair game.

[kevinz]

12:43 PM on 03/26/2009

And you are telling the Americans for what? Kenya has its own problems that have nothing to do with here.

[7granny]

01:52 AM on 03/29/2009

Kevina, our current president went to Kenya before he was elected & spoke on behalf of a relative, Raila Odinge, that was running for president of Kenya. When Odinge lost his followers went on a killing rampage that was reportly encouraged by him. The man elected finally appointed Odinge as Prime Minister in hopes that the killing would stop.

[Hopemonger38]

12:28 PM on 03/26/2009

I hope he is well soon.

[maggiee]

12:01 PM on 03/26/2009

Although I don't wish anyone ill and hope the president's brother recovers quickly, I think this underscores the fact that we have a real universalist for a president. I love that he has brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and in-laws from all around the country and all around the world. I love that he is so literally connected to so many different kinds of people from different socio-economic groups and nationalities and religions and races; rural, urban and suburban. Hard to be in a bubble with this kind of background.

I understand that having this kind of crazy melting pot background is really not unusual for Hawaiians. I think it's awsome! The best of American multiculturalism personified.

[fbr79]

01:03 PM on 03/26/2009

pfffffff, universawhat? I have some family in South America, does that count?

[BoSoxFanNC]

11:52 AM on 03/26/2009

He must of heard about the budget spending bill....I got sick too

[tel8034]

12:27 PM on 03/26/2009

Please note that Obama's half-brother has stomach pains .......... HE IS NOT MENTALLY SICK.

Don't compare apples with oranges.

[MESGAIN26]

11:07 AM on 03/26/2009

ANOTHER CASE OF ,media organizations look to manufacture fake controversies where none apparently exist

[JulieSA]

01:10 PM on 03/26/2009

How is this controversial?

[ywcachieve]

11:28 PM on 03/26/2009

You can't figure out why?