WorldNetDaily.com reporter Jerome Corsi is reporting that Democratic president nominee Senator Barack Obama helped fundraise for Raila Odinga, the prime minister of Kenya who is reported to have promised Sharia-law for Muslim populated areas. FightTheSmears.com, a web site set up by the Obama campaign to answer dishonest criticism and reports, responded that Odinga has denied receiving funding from Obama.

Senator Obama traveled alongside Odinga in 2006 during a visit to Kenya and criticized his opponent, but denies fundraising for the candidate. Corsi has cited emails allegedly sent from Obama to Odinga as proof that the two were in direct contact, but the Obama campaign says the emails are fake.

WorldNetDaily.com also published a memo, said to be from the Odinga campaign’s director of accounting that showed that “Friends of Senator BO [Barack Obama]” helped raise nearly $1 million for Odinga. The report also said that several former high-level officials in Odinga’s party confirmed that Mark Lippert, a foreign policy advisor for Obama, contacted fundraisers and donors for Obama to help raise money for Odinga when he visited the U.S. in 2006. They also claimed Obama frequently spoke to Odinga on his cell phone.

A political strategy document from Odinga’s party, the ODM, also shows that he sought to take advantage of support in the United States.

“[ODM] can expect both financial and political support particularly from the United States,” the document said.

Both Odinga and Obama have denied the fundraising allegation and FightTheSmears.com reported that no political action committee going by the name of “Friends of Senator Barack Obama” exists. No records, besides the one published by WorldNetDaily.com, could be located to prove that such fundraising occurred.

The report also said that a document obtained by WorldNetDaily.com proved that Odinga had promised to implement Sharia Law in Muslim areas, which is strict rule based on Islamic doctrine. The document said that the National Muslim Leaders would be given authority over all religious activities and Odinga would fire the police commissier who was being “used by heathens and Zionists to oppress the Kenyan Muslim community.”

He also pledged to disband the Anti-Terror Police Unit, outlaw Christian broadcasting, and said he’d never hand over a Kenyan citizen suspected of being involved in terrorism to another country.

The former members of Odinga’s party said that a later document that was signed by Odinga was modified due to the criticism of the agreement. In November 2007, The National Muslim Leaders Forum denied reports that Odinga has agreed to implement Sharia Law.

After Odinga claimed that he lost the presidential election to Mwai Kibaki due to voter fraud, violence erupted that claimed the lives of over 1,000 people. Odinga was given the position of prime minister in order to end the violence.

Corsi, who was deported from Kenya while investigating the story, recently published a book called “The Obama Nation.” The Obama campaign sharply criticized the book as being inaccurate and full of lies and published a 40 page rebuttal to it.

by Ryan Mauro