Social Psychologist & Personal Advisor

Dr Matt's Myth Busting!

Was Barack Obama Born in Kenya or Hawaii?
Photoshopping a Forgery! .
.by Matt Moody, Ph.D.

The "Registration of Birth" shown below is a forgery based upon a real document issued to David Jeffrey Bomford, born in South Australia in 1959.

Here's the Real Document from which the forgery is based:

How can we tell that the Obama Birth Registration from Mombasa, Kenya is a Photoshopped forgery? Closely compare the two documents:

Both documents share the same Registration ID: "7s 6d  No  495" and the same Title "Certified Copy of Registration of Birth,"and the same format, e.g., "Date and Place of Birth," and the same Page No. to the right of the District "5733" — a number that is repeated at the bottom of both documents.

What are the chances that all these details would be exactly the same on a Kenyan document, compared to an Australian document? Do you believe in miracles? Here are other "coincidental" details, first the Fake followed by the Real Registration:

Again, both documents share the same format, e.g., same columns and categories, etc.; notice that the last name of the Registrar is "Lavender" on both documents, and the last name of the District Registrar is "Miller" — with middle initials being the same for both documents too (just the first initials were Photoshopped).

Traveling 550 Miles for a Hospital?

Barack Obama, Sr. grew up in the small village of Nyang'oma, located inland near Lake Victoria. With the city of Nairobi 250 miles away, why would Barack Sr. and his wife Ann travel 550 miles to the coast of Kenya, to have Barack Jr. born in the Coast Provincial General Hospital of Mombasa? If you peruse a map of Kenya, you will see that traveling from Myang'oma to Mombasa, a person will pass through Nairobi, the Capital of Kenya. But Barack and Ann didn't even need to travel 250 miles to Nairobi to find a hospital, because 37 miles to the east in Kisumu, the Aga Khan Hospital has been operating since 1957.

In 2008, traveling to Kogelo-Nyang'oma is described as "more than an hour's drive from Kisumu along a pot-holed highway and then a rich-red dirt road." If it takes more than an hour to travel 37 miles in 2008, THEN how long would it take to travel 550 miles from Kogelo-Nyang'oma to Mombasa. In modern-day Kenya, it takes 5-1/2 hours to travel from Kisumu to Nairobi by matatus (minibus) — how much longer would it take in 1961.

Adding the travel time from Nyang'oma to Kisumu, plus a couple of hours more to account for BAD roads in 1961, a couple would spend most of a day traveling to Nairobi. And instead of checking into a hotel to rest for another day's journey to Mombasa, why not just check into a Hospital and save yourself 300 more miles of jolting up and down on pot-holed roads.

Maybe Barack Obama Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham booked a commercial flight out from Kisumu Airport to Mombasa in 1961? Maybe . . . NOT! Here's a photo of Kisumu Airport in 2010; you can see all 4 people who run the airport standing on the tarmac:

This IS an actual photo the Kisumu Airport, I was just kidding about the "4" total people who run the airport — there are really five "5" people who run the airport (kidding again). Seriously, the Kisumu Airport was built in 1930. I'm still researching whether commercial flights were available out of Kisumu 50 years ago? I seriously doubt it. Birther Alert! The 550-mile trip from Nyang'oma to Mombasa . . . NEVER HAPPENED.

Kogelo-Nyang'oma IS definitely where the Obama Family hails from, zoom in on this Map and see two schools named after "Senator Barack Obama." Granny Sarah Onyango Obama continues to live in the remote village of Kogelo to this day, in a 2-room hut — just a stone's throw from Nyang'oma. Now, back to the Photoshopped Forgery:

Note that the Book and Page numbers are exactly the same: "44B" and "5733"

The Forged Document is dated 17 February 1964 (above, left) and is issued by the Republic of Kenya, as shown below.

According to Snopes, Kenya did not adopt the name, Republic of Kenya, until 12 December 1964. As of February 1964 it was known as the Dominion of Kenya.

The Fake Document also indicates the wrong age for Barack Obama, Sr., who was born on 4 April 1936 and would have been 25 years old at Barack Obama II's birth on 4 August 1961 — not "26 years" as shown here (at the center of the photo):

Barack's birth date and birthplace are listed as August 4th, 1961 in "Mombasa," but that city was not part of the "Republic of Kenya" until 12 December 1963 — more than two years after Barack's birth.

On 1 July 1895, Mombasa became part of Britain's protectorate, with the coastal city being nominally under the sovereignty of Zanzibar. So in 1961, Mombasa was governed by the "British East African Protectorate" and was part of state of Zanzibar — not Kenya (whether "Dominion" or "Republic"). Here's a monument that commemorates Mombasa's history:

According to MombasaInfo.com: "The British took control of Mombasa in 1895, after the sultan of Zanzibar leased the town to the British. . . . The British rule officially ended when Kenya finally gained its hard-fought independence on the 12th December 1963."

Mombasa was part of the state of Zanzibar but under British rule until 12 December 1963 when it ceded into the independent state of Kenya. A year after Kenya gained its independence from Britain, the Dominion of Kenya became the Republic of Kenya. (HeritageInAfrica.org)

Barack Hussein Obama, 44th U.S. President, was Born in Hawaii

The "Birthers" make a big deal about the Birth Certificate of Barack Obama; they scream: SHOW ME THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE. Both Snopes and FactCheck.org have thoroughly documented the real existence of a genuine "Hawaiian" Birth Certificate for Barack Obama. Of course the "Birthers" are the few people on earth who believe that Barack Obama was NOT born in the USA, and thus NOT eligible to be President.

The Staff of FactCheck.org has actually seen, touched, smelled, and tasted the Barack Obama Birth Certificate — and for your viewing pleasure, FactCheck has photographed it! But in the end, convincing evidence that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, is also very simple evidence: Here's an announcement of Barack's birth published in the Honolulu Advertiser, August 4, 1961.

Here's the entire page within which the announcement appears in the "Advertiser":

An identical announcement appeared the next day in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

FactCheck.org writes: "Of course, it's distantly possible that Obama's grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday. We suggest that those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat."

Answering the Assertions in the "Kenyan Birth Certificate" Email

This email employs typical tactics of propaganda: Un-referenced assertions like: "This is part of what Obama has spent almost $2M to hide." But where is the evidence that Barack Obama has spent two 2 million trying to hide certain details? The email does not supply the evidence.

The email is written by . . . nobody! People who fabricate lies, do not want to be identified. Forwarded emails written by Anonymous Authors are Red Flags signaling unreliable information.

This email simply "says it" — it asserts this or that as fact and offers no evidence to back the claim. The following quote from the email appears to be a source of evidence:

"I asked a British history buff I know if he could find out who the colonial registrar was for Mombasa in 1961. He called me up a few minutes ago and said "Sir Edward F. Lavender"

The anonymous author of the email refers to an anonymous "history buff," who might as well be the Easter Bunny, because any attempt to follow-up and verify are impossible, unless "sources" have names and addresses. Now for more smoke and mirrors, in leau of evidence, here is the supposed Source for the existence of Sir Edward F. Lavender: "Kenya Dominion Record 4667 Australian library." Posted by Alan Peters at 11:56 PM"

But good luck in finding: "Kenya Dominion Record 4667 Australian library." and "Alan Peters."

Propaganda Lesson #1: Saying it . . . doesn't make it so!

There is no such person as "Sir Edward F. Lavender" who was a Registrar in Mombasa in 1961. On the other hand, there IS a person named G. F. Lavender, who is a Registrar in South Australia.

So the story Birthers expect us to believe is this:

Granny Sarah Onyango, Barack Obama Sr. and his pregnant wife, Stanley Ann Dunham, are in Mombasa just days before her due date. We are to believe that Ann Dunham is swimming in the Indian ocean about 5:30 pm. Is this typical behavior for a pregnant lady? She's attending a Muslim Festival on a very hot day in Mombasa, thousands of miles from home in Hawaii. Here Mrs. Obama is 8.9 months pregnant, ready to pop any moment, and she's taking a dip in the Indian Ocean to "cool off." Is this logical behavior for a woman just days before her DUE DATE?

Why were the couple in Kenya in the first place? Did Barack Sr. and Stanley Ann originally go to Kogelo-Nyang'oma (the Obama Family stomping grounds), and then travel to Mombasa? Or did Granny Sarah travel 550 miles to attend the Muslim Festival, meeting up with Barack, Sr. and Ann in Mombasa, after the couple completed a 10,750 mile flight from Hawaii? The logisitic of the rendezvous just don't make sense. Here is the account that Granny Sarah Onyango Obama supposedly gave:

"On August 4, 1961 Obama's mother, father and grandmother were attending a Muslim festival in Mombassa, Kenya.  Mother had been refused entry to airplanes due to her 9 month pregnancy.  It was a hot August day at the festival so the Obama's went to the beach to cool off. While swimming in the ocean his mother experienced labor pains so was rushed to the Coast Provincial General Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya where Obama was born a few hours later at 7:21 pm on August 4, 1961."

Here's the problem: Granny Sarah Onyango does not speak English, her native tongue is Swahili. Thus the above statement has to be a translation of her words, from Swahili to English. Such a translation would result in uneven English, instead of a smoothly written account. Where is the Swahili version? And who was the translator of the Swahili version? IF this account were REAL, then the previous questions could be answered quite easily.

What is Barack Sr. and Stanley Ann doing at a Muslim festival in Mombasa, Kenya in 1961? Why? It that how pregnant women think just days before their due date? I'm craving a Muslim Festival? Something smell fishy about this story. Here are some "smoke and mirrors" surrounding what tries to look like documentation of facts:

Testimony from a Mombasa science teacher and the Mombasa Registrar of births that Obama's birth certificate from Mombasa is genuine. A copy of President Obama's birth certificate that Lucas Smith obtained through the help of a Kenyan Colonel who got it recently directly from the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.

At the mention of a "science teacher," that lends credibility to what a "science teacher" might say. And getting the birth certificate from a "Kenyan Colonel."

With an abundance of excellent fact-checking websites available, there is no excuse for anyone to forward fraudulent information — make that . . . no reasonable excuse! Unfortunately prejudice and laziness continue to be bad reasons why some people forward false information.

What if Barack Obama Were Born in Kenya?

Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was called by the name "Anna." Anna Dunham was born in the United States and was a United States Citizen. This means any child she gives birth to become U.S. citizens regardless of the country they are born in, with one exception: Anna Dunham would need to be at least 19 years old at the birth of her child. The applicable guidelines are as follows:

For persons born between December 24, 1952 and November 14, 1986 (Barack Obama, II), a person is a U.S. citizen if all of the following are true:

      1.  One of the child's parents (Ann Dunham) was a U.S. citizen when the baby is born — True
      2.  The citizen parent (Ann Dunham) lived at least ten years in the U.S. before the baby's birth — True
      3.  A minimum of 5 of these 10 years were after the citizen parent's (Ann Dunham's) 14th birthday — False

Stanley Ann Dunham was born November 29, 1942: so she was 18 years 8-1/2 months old when she gave birth to Barack Obama, II. Thus, Anna Dunham was a citizen 4 years 8-1/2 months after her 14th birthday, at the time of Barack's birth — less than of the required "5 of these 10 years."

If Barack Obama II really were born in Kenya, he would not have been an American citizen at birth. Instead, Barack would have become a citizen similar like Arnold Schwarzenegger — through a process called "Naturalization." Anyone who becomes a citizen through "Naturalization" is ineligible to be President of the United States.

What was Barack Obama Sr. and Anna Dunham doing in Hawaii?

A glaring error in reason and evidence occurs whenever we examine FACTS out of context. If Barack Obama was NOT born in Hawaii, then why were his parents in Hawaii, in the first place. By simply taking a look at their life histories we discover that Barack Obama, Sr. and Anna Dunham were both students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Hawaii is where they first met and eventually married.

Stanley Ann Dunham was named after her father, Stanley Armour Dunham. Because Mr. Dunham always wanted a son, when a daughter was born instead, he named her "Stanley" anyway — something she was teased about through her childhood. After Stanley Ann graduated from the Mercer Island High School in the Seattle Washington, the Dunham Family moved to Hawaii, where she enrolled in the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The conspiracy theory would have us believe that when Ann Dunham was in the latter stages of pregnancy, Barack and Anna hop a Jet to Kenya to visit Barack Sr.'s old stomping grounds (or was it primarily to participate in the Muslim Festival in Mombasa. Either explanation is quite illogical. When a woman is pregnant, especially with the very first pregnancy, priority is focused upon preparing for the birth — and not vacations in Kenya.

According to the conspiracy theory, Barack Sr. and Anna attend a Muslim Festival in Mombasa on a hot summer's day when Anna is 8.9 months pregnant and ready to POP. Of course, on a HOT day, pregnant women crave a dip in the Indian Ocean — and there, of all places, she goes into contractions.

If you believe that, then I've got some beach front property in North Dakota I want to sell you .

:o)
Dr Matt

* * * * * * *

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For this is the Journey that men make:.
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Social Psychologist & Personal Advisor