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Biography
Malik Obama (born March 1958), also known as Abongo or Roy, is the half-brother of 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the son of Barack Obama Sr. and his first wife, Kezia.
Biography
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Obama earned a degree in accounting from the University of Nairobi. Malik and Barack Obama met for the first time in 1985, when Barack flew from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to visit Malik. The two each served as best man at the other's wedding. Barack brought his wife Michelle Obama to Kenya three years later, seeing Malik again while meeting many other relatives for the first time. Malik Obama is Muslim.
Malik Obama lives in the Obamas' ancestral home, Nyang'oma Kogelo, a village of several hundred people, preferring its slow pace to that of the city. He runs a small electronics shop a half-hour's drive away in another town. Although much of the Obama family has dispersed throughout Kenya and overseas, most, including Malik, still consider their rural village on the shores of Lake Victoria to be their true home. They feel that those who have left the village have become culturally "lost". A frequent visitor to the United States, and a consultant in Washington, D.C., for several months each year, Obama has dual citizenship in Kenya and the United States.
Political career and advocacy
During his brother's 2008 presidential campaign, Malik Obama was a spokesman for the extended Obama family in Kenya. He dealt with safety and privacy concerns arising from the increased attention from the press.
Obama ran for governor of the Kenyan county of Siaya in 2013. His campaign slogan was "Obama here, Obama there" in reference to his half-brother who was serving his second term as the President of the United States. Malik garnered 2,792 votes, about 140,000 votes behind the eventual winner.
In early 2015, an increasingly estranged Obama questioned Barack's parentage, supporting a DNA test. Prior to the 2016 United States presidential election, he stated that he supported Donald Trump, the candidate for the Republican Party. He attended the third presidential debate as one of Trump's guests.
On June 12, 2020, Malik reportedly endorsed the incumbent United States president Donald Trump, and later in the week promoted information in support of what is widely known as the Birtherism conspiracy theory. Auma Obama (among others) condemned him for promoting the theory.
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