London: Embattled Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga said today that he is related to US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, adding the democratic candidate had called him this week to offer support. "Barack Obama's father is actually my maternal uncle," said Odinga, who is battling to overturn disputed presidential elections which have plunged Kenya into turmoil.

"Barack Obama called me during his presidential campaign," Odinga, who says President President Mwai Kibaki rigged December 27 polls to win re-election, told BBC World Service radio. Obama, who has overtaken presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic White House nomination, has a Kenyan father who like Odinga was a member of the Luo tribe.

"He called me twice yesterday to express his concern and to say he is also going to call president Kibaki so that Kibaki agrees to find a negotiated satisfactory solution to this problem," said Odinga. Odinga, speaking from Nairobi, reiterated his refusal to meet Kibaki without mediation.

"He knows that there is no basis for me meeting with him directly cause he has stolen an election. I won the elections, he lost it. He is still sitting in the house illegally," he said. "We have been cheated, the people of this country have been cheated.... We are in a constitutional crisis."

Source : PTI