Barack Obama's Brother George Has A Dark Past. Here's What We Know

You may or may not know this about former President Barack Obama, but he has eight half-siblings scattered across the globe. One of them, George Obama, has made some headlines over the years, and not always for the right reasons. George, who met his half-brother Barack only twice in his life, is the youngest of the former president's siblings and never knew his father, who died in a car accident when he was just six months old. George lives in Kenya, and his experience is a world apart from his half-brother's. See, the youngest Obama brother hasn't exactly had a clean-cut life. In 2009, shortly after Barack took office, George found himself in trouble with the authorities for being in possession of marijuana, which is illegal in Nairobi, where he lives. "They [the police] took me from my home," he said after his arrest (via The Guardian). "I don't know why they are charging me."

George frequently found himself in trouble with the law and even served time. He belonged to a gang and admitted during an interview with NPR that he has violent tendencies. "I know how to beat people. I'm good with my fists too much," he said. He also admitted to being party to several robberies, some of which he committed at gunpoint. "I just think I'm, like, I was born a rebel, or something. I don't know. I'm not sure why," he told NPR when asked about his past crimes.

George appears to have learned from his past mistakes, however, and has spent most of his life after prison trying to give back to his community.

George Obama knows just how quickly life can go sideways when you hang out with the wrong crowd. "I've done a lot of bad things in my life, and I regret them," he told NPR. Like his brother, Barack Obama, George chronicled his life in a book, "Homeland," which he said helped him fund some of the community projects in which he was involved, like the soccer team he was coaching.

After serving his nine-month prison sentence, George realized he could be a valuable example to the youth in his community. He told The Guardian in 2012, "You have to teach the youth by example. In Kenya, the police have a 'shoot to kill' policy. So they're not going to be taken to prison, they're going to be killed," he explained. "Lay out the options: you either stop or you go and die." Keeping the kids in his neighborhood busy doing meaningful things has been George's way of keeping them out of trouble. He headed several youth groups he busied with football games, drama classes, and environmental cleanup projects.

Even though George's half-brother Barack Obama's childhood was vastly different from his, he holds no grudges. An anti-Obama documentary released in 2012 tried in vain to get George to say something critical about his half-brother, but when asked whether he was upset that Barack wasn't financially supporting him, George answered, "I think he has a family of his own. I'm a member of his family, but I'm over-age, so I help myself" (via The Hollywood Reporter). When interviewers pushed him on the matter, George added, "He's got other issues to deal with. He's taking care of the world, so he's taking care of me."