Fact Check

Kenyan Government Releases Obama's Real Birth Certificate

Have Kenyan authorities released papers confirming President Barack Obama's birth in that country?

David Mikkelson

Published Oct 25, 2014

Claim:   Kenyan authorities have released papers confirming President Barack Obama's birth in that country.

FALSE

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, October 2014]


Is this true?

Is this true? BREAKING: Kenyan Government Releases Obama’s Real Birth Certificate


 

Origins:   On 28 May 2014, the World News Daily Report web site published an article positing that Kenyan authorities had released papers seemingly confirming U.S. President Barack Obama had been born in that country:



The Office of the Principal Register of the Nyanza Province, in Kenya, has finally released 11 exclusive documents concerning Barack Obama’s alleged birth and early childhood in the country. These official papers had been requested for years by the Tea Party Patriots, an American conservative organization, to no avail, but the Kenyan Supreme Court recently ordered authorities to release the documents, based on a law on "access to information." These files, if they turn out to be verifiable, could mean that Mr. Obama had no legal right to become the American president under the country's law.

The papers released today suggest that Barack Obama was actually born on March 7 1960, in Lamu, Kenya, more than a year before his father moved to Hawaii, where he allegedly met his mother. This contradicts most of the documents presented by the presidential office over the last years, suggesting that either the American or the Kenyan papers are actually fakes.


That article largely remained dormant for five months after its initial publication, until 24 October 2014, when it was summarized on the disreputable, click-baiting American News web site under the title "Kenyan Government Releases Obama's Real Birth Certificate." Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing the claims made in the original article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news item. However, the original article was just another spoof from World News Daily Report, a fake news web site whose stock in trade is publishing fantastically fictional stories.

World News Daily Report's disclaimer page states that:



World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.

Last updated:   25 October 2014

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.