Nairobi - Kenyan police have barred the media from the home of the grandmother of US presidential hopeful Barack Obama in the run-up to next week's US elections, news reports said Thursday.

Local and international journalists have been increasingly pestering Sarah Obama and her family in the small village of Kogelo in western Kenya as the elections approach.

Police now have placed an embargo on all interviews with or photographs of Senator Obama's extended family in Kenya until after the voting.

"We do not want Mama Sarah Obama to be disturbed at the moment as she needs time to monitor the elections as they unfold," Siaya district police chief Johnston Ipara told the Daily Nation.

Security has been stepped up at the Obama home since a failed robbery in September.

Senator Obama, whose late father was Kenyan, is considered a hero in the East African nation.

Cheering crowds mobbed the route he took during his last visit to Kenya in 2006, and a recent BBC poll found that support for him there stood at more than 80 per cent. (dpa)