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Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) - January 18, 2008

UPDATE:KENYA Obama’s uncle trapped by violence The U.S. presidential hopeful’s relative eschews favors, saying he wants to deal with crisis ‘’like any other Kenyan.’’

U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s uncle has been a prisoner in his own home, trapped by postelection violence that has left more than 600 dead.

Said Obama, 41, lives in this western city, near a slum that has been a flashpoint for violence. Police shot and killed four people there Wednesday while trying to prevent thousands of rowdy protesters from entering the city center.

“Yesterday I was confined to my house; it was just too dangerous to go out,” Obama said. “I could hear bullets around the place so I stayed put and listened to the radio for news.”

Most of Barack Obama’s other relatives in Kenya, including his 86-year-old grandmother, Sarah, live in a rural area nearby that has been unaffected by the violence.

Kisumu, on the banks of Lake Victoria, is a stronghold of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who accuses President Mwai Kibaki of stealing the Dec. 27 elections that local and international observers say was rigged. Odinga called for three days of protests across the country beginning Wednesday.

“These days you have to be scared because you don’t know what will happen next,” Said Obama said. The streets were largely deserted Thursday.

After election results were announced last month, protesters torched buildings and looted shops. Police opened fire in Ksumu; hospital records show 44 people were shot and killed.

Barack Obama called Odinga and said he urged all leaders to tell their supporters to resolve the situation peacefully. His advisers say he also has discussed the crisis with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

As for Said Obama, he said, “I don’t want to pull the Obama card. We have a problem in Kenya and I want to live it like any other Kenyan, not as Obama’s relative.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

The Kenyan police seemed to ratchet up the pressure against demonstrators and others on Thursday, arresting a freelance photographer for the New York Times and a Japanese photographer.

Tensions have risen since a Kenyan TV crew on Wednesday filmed a police officer in Kisumu killing an unarmed demonstrator. There also were reports of ethnically driven fighting in the slums ringing Nairobi, the capital, on Thursday.

Police officials defended the use of force and said mobs carrying gasoline had been sighted in Nairobi’s business hub on Wednesday. Police shut down the central business district.