NAIROBI, Kenya — Malik Obama, President Obama’s stepbrother, announced yesterday that he will run for governor of the western Kenyan county of Siaya, where he may face a sibling of Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Malik Obama, 54, will compete as an independent candidate during the March 4 national elections, he said in Kogelo, about 193 miles west of the capital, Nairobi. Malik Obama, who has the same father as President Obama, said he will use his relationship with his half- brother to address issues such as poverty and unemployment.

“Siaya county is facing a lot of problems from poor infrastructure to poverty due to bad leadership,” he said. “I will change this if elected.”