Obama's Kenyan Grandmother to Attend Jan. 20 Event

In this file photo, Sarah Onyango Obama, grandmother of President-elect Barack Obama, smiles as she talks with a relative at her home in the village of Kongelo, western Kenya. She will be in Washington for the Inauguration.

(AP Photo)

President-elect Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother will be among the millions of people in Washington for the Inauguration.

Sarah Obama, the mother of Obama's Kenyan-born father, will join representatives from the Kenyan government, African Union and African diplomats for an unofficial inaugural ball on Jan. 20. Organizers say Kenya's foreign minister and the Boys Choir of Kenya also plan to travel to the United States for the invitation-only event at a Washington-area hotel.

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Obama was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. Obama's father left when he a child and died in 1982. Obama was not especially close to his African family although he visited them on a 2006 trip to Kenya.

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