An American author who penned an anti-Barack Obama book was detained by immigration authorities in Kenya after plans to launch the book there, the Times of London reported. Jerome Corsi, of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fame, was being held Tuesday morning while his immigration status was checked in a nation where Obama is widely popular. Kenyan airport officials said they plan to deport Corsi.
Despite, Joe Farah, a friend of Corsi's, told FOXNews he was still in custody and expected to make a flight to the U.K. later Tuesday.
He had been planning to launch his book, entitled "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," before traveling to one of Nairobi’s slums to donate money to the Senator’s half-brother George, who was found living in squalid conditions two months ago.
But officers swooped hours after Corsi was described as "author of a smear crusade" by local newspapers.
Immigration officials claim he had been detained because he did not have a work permit, however one of Corsi's assistants said he was "just answering some questions.”
"We have been given water and are very comfortable," the assistant said.
Journalists were turned away from the hotel suite where the launch was due to be held. "He shouldn’t have had anything in the paper this morning," said one. "That was his mistake. He should have kept it secret."
Corsi said he had a $1,000 check for George Obama, seen as part of a stunt to suggest that the senator was not taking care of his Kenyan-based relative.
Corsi's book claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendoes and false rumors — that he was raised a Muslim, attended a radical, black church and is secretly seething with "black rage."
Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his campaign picks apart the book's claims on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com.
A source at Nyayo House, where Corsi was being held, said the author had been detained for references made to Raila Odinga, the Kenyan prime minister, and allegations that his Muslim supporters had engaged in a wave of violence that rocked the country after December’s disputed elections.
The allegations are not taken seriously in Kenya, were Odinga is widely seen to have been cheated out of a legitimate victory.
Carlos Maluta, a senior immigration official in charge of investigations, said Corsi did not have a work permit.
In the promotional literature for his book, Corsi promised to reveal sinister links between Kenyan politicians and Obama.
"Dr. Corsi will also expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency," it said.
Obama, whose father was a well-known Kenyan economist, is hugely popular across Africa.
In Kenya, his meteoric rise and subsequent fame have won him support across traditional tribal boundaries and left many ordinary people wondering why American right-wingers would wish him ill.