Obama’s relative in robbery drama

Kinship with Barack Obama is proving something of a mixed blessing for his Kenyan relatives. First his half-brother George Hussein Onyango Obama complains of feeling a sense of shame, living in penury while Barack runs for the presidency. Now the candidate's step-grandmother, Sarah, who like George lives in a rural village in western Kenya, has become the victim of thieves who are under the impression Barack is filling her purse with US dollars.

The attempted robbery took place on Wednesday morning when Sarah Hussein Onyango Obama, who is said to be "about 86", was woken up by the sound of people stomping on her roof. According to Eric Kiraithe, a Kenyan police spokesman, some young men from her village were trying to pry off her solar panel, one of her prized possessions. She was having none of it: along with other relatives she chased the burglars away and the police later arrested four men.

Sarah appears more annoyed than ruffled by the experience. "These are just people who think that Obama has been sending me a lot of money," she said. While she wears ripped dresses and lives in a tin-roofed house, the rumours that she is rich have become a problem. Eric Kiraithe says: "There was this talk that she had many dollars stashed away."

It doesn't help that Kenya is transfixed with Obama fever. The senator's grinning face is plastered on mini-buses and quite often the front page of newspapers, and a popular Obama-themed reggae song has been playing on the radio. Sarah was the third wife of the senator’s grandfather, though not the mother of the Illinois senator's father. That has not stopped her becoming a celebrity (in her village), where people greet her with the salutation, "Da senator!". ·