NAIROBI , Kenya ( CNN ) -- George Obama , the half brother of U.S. President Barack Obama , told CNN on Sunday that he was released from a Kenyan jail hours after his arrest on suspicion of marijuana possession . George Obama was arrested in Kenya on suspicion of marijuana possession , according to police . Kenyan police did not confirm whether George Obama was still in their custody . Obama spoke to CNN from his cell phone , and a relative also said he was released . He said he was arrested on Saturday and released later that day . Obama was arrested on suspicion of possession of cannabis , known in Kenya as bhang , and resisting arrest , Inspector Augustine Mutembei said . He was held at Huruma police post in Kenya 's capital , Nairobi , and scheduled to appear in court Monday , Mutembei said . But Obama told CNN all charges against him were dropped . Police would not comment on that . Speaking from behind bars on Saturday , Obama denied the allegations . `` They took me from my home , '' he said . `` I do n't know why they are charging me . '' George Obama and the president barely know each other , though they have met . George Obama was one of the few people closely related to the president who did not attend the inauguration in Washington . In his memoir , `` Dreams from My Father , '' Barack Obama describes meeting George as a `` painful affair . '' His trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known . CNN tracked down George Obama in August 2008 and found him at a small house in Huruma , a Nairobi slum , where he lives with his mother 's extended family . His birth certificate shows he is Barack Obama 's half brother . The two men share the same Kenyan father . In the memoir , Barack Obama struggles to reconcile with his father after he left him and his mother when he was a child . Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was 6 months old . And like his half brother , George hardly knew his father . George was his father 's last child and had not been aware of his famous half brother until he rose to prominence in the Democratic primaries last year . Unlike his grandmother in Kogela , in western Kenya , George Obama received little attention from the media until reports about him surfaced in August 2008 . The reports sprung from an Italian Vanity Fair article saying George Obama lived in a shack and was `` earning less than a dollar a day . '' The reports left George Obama angry . `` I was brought up well . I live well even now , '' he said . `` The magazines , they have exaggerated everything . `` I think I kind of like it here . There are some challenges , but maybe it is just like where you come from , there are the same challenges , '' Obama said . Obama , who is in his mid-20s , said at the time that he was learning to become a mechanic and was active in youth groups in Huruma . He said he tries to help the community as much as he can .
George Obama says he 's out of jail , that charges against him have been dropped . Kenyan police wo n't confirm George Obama 's arrest . George Obama was arrested in Kenya on suspicion of marijuana possession . He is half - brother of US President Barack Obama .