Obama relatives feel spotlight in Kenya

NYANGMA-KOGELO, Kenya, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Kenyan relatives of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama are new celebrities in their country, but say the spotlight isn't always welcome.

"Dealing with all this, it's been like a full-time job," said Said Obama, the president-elect's uncle.

The Obamas are the richest people in Nyangma-Kogelo, population 2,000. But they've been portrayed as the poor relations, beggars even, in the international press, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

"We support Barack, but we have no expectations," Auma Obama, Barack Obama's half-sister, told the newspaper. "We have not lacked and don't expect to lack in anything. There isn't an expectation that our lives are going to change because Barack has become president."

The president-elect's step-grandmother, 86-year-old Sarah Onyango, plans on attending the inauguration.

"Do you really think I'm going to be left behind?" she told the Times.