NAIROBI, Kenya - December 22, 2008 - The Kenyan government has barred unapproved contacts between the media and President-elect Barack Obama's extended family. Family members will be required to receive permission from the government before making any public statements about their famous relative, according to the Nairobi Star.

"We are doing this because we want to ensure better flow of information," Athman Said, an undersecretary in the Ministry of Heritage, told the Obama family in Kogelo. "The government has decided that you should inform its officers who will be based here if you want to address the media." Journalists wishing to speak with the family must first be approved by the government.

While the latest attempt to embargo news about and from the president-elect's African family may anticipate passage of the "media gag" bill, economics, tourism and boosterism are also part of the equation.