Newsmaker

Obama aunt anguished by separation

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-03 09:22

US President Barack Obama's Kenyan aunt buried her face in her hands and sobbed as she described her anguish over no longer having contact with him and his family after the revelation that she had been living illegally for years in the United States in public housing.

Zeituni Onyango said that she is troubled that her immigration woes have made her a political liability to her nephew.

Onyango, the half sister of Obama's late father, said she has exiled herself from the family after attending Obama's inauguration because she didn't want to become fodder for his foes. Obama and his family have not reached out to her either, she said.

"Before, we were family. But right now, there is a lot of politics, and me, I am not interested in any politics at all," said Onyango, whose appeal for asylum from her native Kenya is before an immigration judge in Boston.

The Obamas are her only family in the United States, she said.

Onyango, 57, is protective of Obama and said she never asked him to intervene in her case and didn't tell him about her immigration difficulties.

The White House said Obama has had no involvement in his aunt's case and believes it should run its ordinary course.