Anti-Obama author kicked out of Kenya

An American author who came to Kenya to discredit Barack Obama was deported on Tuesday night.

Writer Jerome Corsi was arrested shortly after 8am just as he was about to address a news conference to launch his anti-Obama book in Nairobi.

He was taken to the Immigration headquarters at Nyayo House and later deported on the British Airways midnight flight out of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Dr Corsi, author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, which has been heavily criticised worldwide for its inaccuracies, came to Kenya more than a week ago, and had been staying with friends in Runda.

Radical Islam

He was due to launch the book, which depicts Mr Obama, whose father was Kenyan, as a sympathiser of radical Islam and communism, at the Laico Regency Hotel.

But he was arrested there before he could speak and driven with an assistant, Mr Timothy M. Bueler, to Nyayo House, around 500 metres away.

The Immigration officials also impounded copies of the Obama book.

At Nyayo House, the two were held for four hours and questioned by officials led by the Director of Immigration, Mr Albert Musasia, about his presence in Kenya.

The decision to deport him was made after it emerged that Dr Corsi and Mr Bueler had entered the country as tourists, stating they intended to visit game parks.

The book launch was a commercial venture, therefore, they had contravened their immigration status.

After questioning, the two were taken to the office of the Permanent Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Kisombe, and from there through the basement to a car in which they were driven to the house where Dr Corsi had been staying in Runda for verification of his passport and visa before they were escorted to the airport.

There he and his aide were held in the Immigration office to await their flight out of the country.

A US embassy official said they were not told officially about the arrests, saying they had learnt about them from the media.

The official said Dr Corsi’s was a private individual’s visit and did not warrant comment from the embassy since he was not a US government official.

Questioned

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe commented later that the two US citizens were summoned by the Immigration department to be questioned on the status of their stay in the country.

He also said that they had chosen to fly out of the country voluntarily after being questioned.

Dr Corsi flew into Kenya last Tuesday and was booked to stay at the Laico Regency (formerly Grand Regency) at 7.55am, although hotel communications manager Jeniffer Wanza said he had been staying in Runda.

Dr Corsi was expected to stay at the hotel for one month.

General manager Solomon Adede later issued a statement distancing the hotel from the planned news conference, scheduled to take place at the Bogoria room.

He said the management would not allow such a function, and added: “Laico Regency is a law-abiding institution and does not condone any smear campaigns.”

He said the booking for the Press conference had been made by Mr Peter Mbae, editor-in-chief of The Eagle Christian magazine.

Mr Mbae founded the newspaper and has played an active role in religious organisations. Posters that were announcing the news conference were quickly pulled down at the hotel.

Kenya features prominently in Dr Corsi’s book, The Obama Nation, which has been seen primarily as a vehicle to run a smear campaign against Mr Obama.

Dr Corsi states early in the book that Kenya will play a key part in his account because “Barack Obama himself tells us that Kenya is an important part of who he is, even today.”

But the book has been widely criticised for containing many inaccuracies and distortions.

When it was released, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said: “Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago.”

Similar attacks were published about former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton during their campaigns to reach the White House.

Perhaps significantly both went on to win the presidency.

Dr Corsi, a well-known right-wing author, used Prime Minister Raila Odinga as a means of attacking Mr Obama on the two fronts of radical Islam and communism.

The Prime Minister, portrayed as a close associate of Mr Obama, is described as “a Muslim sympathiser with well-known communist political roots”.

Obama’s father

The book suggests that Mr Odinga might be a Muslim, even though, as it admits, he “today professes to be an Anglican”.

The book also attacks Obama’s father Mr Barack Obama Snr, who came from Siaya in Nyanza Province and who died in 1982, referring to him as “an alcoholic polygamist” and a Muslim who gravitated to the “more extreme communist position openly advocated by and identified with Oginga Odinga.”

The book distorts Mr Obama’s political views and associations — often by means of inaccuracies — in an attempt to destroy his image as a new-style politician able to bridge cultural, racial and ideological divides.