A Kenyan half brother of US President Barack Obama said yesterday he was briefly arrested at his home in a slum on suspicion of drug possession.

"I think it was a misunderstanding. I do not do drugs," George Hussein Obama, 27, said from Nairobi's Huruma slum, where he was picked up for a few hours on Saturday. "They released me with no charge."

Local media quoted police saying Obama, who works as a mechanic, had been found with two rolls of marijuana.