Kenyan officials say the American author of a book critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is being deported.

Jerome Corsi walks down a corridor as he arrives at immigration department in Nairobi, Kenya, 07 Oct 2008

Jerome Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was detained earlier Tuesday at immigration headquarters in the capital, Nairobi.  

Police and immigration officials say Corsi has since been taken to the airport where he will be deported, allegedly because of problems with his travel documents.

Corsi was in Kenya to launch his book, which questions Obama's character and fitness for office.

Obama is wildly popular in Kenya.  His father, now deceased, was a Kenyan economist.

In a news release about the book launch earlier this week, Corsi said he intended to expose secret ties between Obama and some Kenyan government leaders.  He said he would also reveal a "plot to be executed in Kenya should Obama win the presidency."

Corsi is the co-author of "Unfit for Command," a book critical of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's Vietnam War record.  The book is thought to have contributed to Kerry's defeat by President George W. Bush.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.