President's relative is arrested

NAIROBI - The half-brother of President Barack Obama was arrested on a marijuana possession charge yesterday near his home in a Nairobi shantytown, police said.

George Obama, who is in his 20s and barely knows the president, had one joint of marijuana on him, said Joshua Omokulongolo, the police chief in the area.

"He is not a drug peddler," Omokulongolo said. "But it's illegal, it's a banned substance."

Obama has a court appearance scheduled tomorrow morning. He and the president have the same father, who died in a car crash in 1982. George is the youngest of the senior Obama's seven children, born six months before his father died.

The White House declined to comment on the arrest.

Several of President Obama's Kenyan relatives went to his inauguration, but George was not among them. He lives in Huruma with extended family. Last year, a magazine reported that he lived in a shack and earned a dollar a day. George Obama called the report insulting.