President Barack Obama's half-brother was denied a visa to enter Britain following an accusation that he attempted to sexually assault a young British girl.
The British newspaper The Sun reports that Samson Obama, a Kenyan national, tried to enter Britain while he was on his way to Washington, DC for his brother's Presidential Inauguration on January 20.
However, according to The Sun reporter Gloria Di Piero, immigration agents at East Midlands Airport, using the latest biometric tests, discovered he was linked to an incident in the United Kingdom that occurred in November, 2008.
Information on the database revealed that Samson -- who manages a mobile phone shop just outside Nairobi, Kenya -- was in fact the man who was arrested by police officers in Berkshire after he allegedly approached a group of young girls, including a 13 year-old, and allegedly tried to sexually assault one of them.
According to The Sun report, the children took refuge inside a cafe, but Obama followed them and became aggressive towards them at which point the cafe owner asked Obama to leave and called the police.
When police officers arrived, Samson Obama was still in the vicinity and, after questioning him, he was placed under arrest by the officers.
He then followed them into a cafe where he became aggressive and was asked to leave by the owner.
That's when police were called to the scene and Samson was arrested.
During his processing, Obama gave officers a false ID -- claiming to be Henry Aloo, a genuine refugee and asylum seeker -- and supplied his mother Mum Kezia's address in Bracknell, Kenya, according to Di Piero.
Mum Kezia, 67, who has lived in Bracknell for six years, had married President Obama's father Barack Obama, Sr. in Kenya while still a teenager.
After Samson's arrest he was fingerprinted but not formally charged and then he was allowed to leave the United Kingdom. But his "pedigree" and the details of the arrest were stored on the Home Office's new database of prints and biometric details.
Samson Obama was apprehended as he attempted to slip back into Britain to visit relatives en route to his half-brother's inauguration.
The Sun also reports that the White House was informed and a Home Office source is quoted as saying,"This was obviously an extremely sensitive issue when it was flashed up by the database."
"But the system is designed to flag up people who have come to the attention of the police in the UK and are then trying to return," he said to The Sun reporter. "This was a good example of how people who may be undesirable can be refused another visa."
It is thought that Samson Obama -- one of the President's 11 half brothers and sisters by his father who had four partners -- managed to travel on to Washington for the inauguration after boarding a connecting flight to the States from East Midlands. He was able to do so despite not having a UK visa because he remained in transit and never left the airport.
On April 10, a Home Office spokesman confirmed that Samson Obama was refused a visa after immigration officers noticed one of the documents he supplied with his visa application was false. That led them to make further inquiries.
A UK Border Agency spokesman to The Sun: "We consider all visa applications based on their merits. We will oppose the entry of individuals to the UK where we believe their presence is not conducive to the public good."
By Jim Kouri
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