Obama's step-grandmother to attend ball

She will travel from Kenya to Washington for inaugural event

Polaris

Barack Obama in Western Kenya with his step-grandmother, who raised his father.

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NBC News

updated 2:56 p.m. ET Jan. 6, 2009

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

Sarah Obama, the stepmother 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 last visited them on a 2006 trip to Kenya. Obama referred to Sarah Obama as "Granny" in his memoir.