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‘Birthers’ Latch Onto Forged Kenyan Birth Certificate

On Sunday night, the online community of birthers erupted after Orly Taitz released a photo of a Kenyan birth certificate for Barack Obama. The birther

Abeo Bunkechukwu
Abeo Bunkechukwu
Jul 31, 2020614 Shares9.7K Views

On Sunday night, the onlinecommunity of “birthers” erupted after Orly Taitz released a photo of a “Kenyan birth certificate” for Barack Obama. The “birther” movement quickly divided between the credulous — people whobelieved that the new certificate was genuine — and skeptics who believed that their movement was being taken for a ride.

This storyneeds a little bit of prelude. Last year, as the bloggers at ObamaConspiracy remember, Philip Berg included an obviously forged birth certificatewith his lawsuitagainst the Democratic National Committee. (The certificate was Canadian and signed by “Dudley Do-Right.”) Foreign birth certificates, unlike, say, Americanpassports, are prime targets for forgery — few people stateside know what the real ones look like, and the penalties for forging them are basically non-existent.

So here it is: the “certified copy of registration of birth”that Orly Taitz obtained and is submittingas evidence in her lawsuit on behalf of Alan Keyes. The most obvious problems:

  • It records Barack Obama Sr’s ageas “26.” Obama Sr was born in 1936; his son was born in 1961.
  • Its publication date is February 17, 1964, but it purports be a document of the “Republic of Kenya.” Kenya did not become a Republic until December 12, 1964, a year after it won independence from Great Britain.
  • It’s signed by “registrar E.F. Lavender.” Earth Friendly Lavenderis a kind of detergent, and governmentofficialswho use vanity initials on official documents are, to put it mildly, rare.
  • The kicker? The image is part of the extremely ill-informed conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Mombasa—conveniently, one of the more Muslim parts of the country.

This has always been a red flag for conspiracy theorists, so it deserves some explanation. Barack Obama Sr. was born and educated in Nyanza Province, in southwestern Kenya, on Lake Victoria. This is the area where Obama’s familylived and continues to live; Sarah Obama, the step-grandmother of the president, lives in Nyang’oma Kogelo, a small town in the province. But Mombasa is a city on the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles to the east. It didn’t even have an internationalairport until 1979. And the city wasn’t even part of Kenya when the futurepresidentwas born. Mombasa was a part of Zanzibar until December 12, 1963, when it became part of the newly independent Kenya.

The new forgery? Why, it claims that the president was born in Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.

  • **As some FreeRepublic posters have pointed out, the document contains a number that’s either a humorous coincidence or a wink by the forger. It’s number 47,044. Barack Obama, 47 years old, is the 44th president of the United States.

So what’s the likeliest story here? One popular theory right now is that the document was faked to discredit the “birther” movement. That wouldn’t be surprising: another document that circulated over the weekend was a “certificate of birth”from “Kenya colony,” and its creator tipped his hand, telling readers that it was a “work of parody.”

*You can follow TWI on Twitterand Facebook. *

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