FACT CHECK: Do These Photos Prove Barack Obama Was Born In Kenya?
A post shared on Instagram purports Malik Obama revealed photos of a passport that prove his half-brother, former President Barack Obama, was born in Kenya.
View this post on Instagram
Verdict: False
A closer look at the passport shows it was issued in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 1959. A copy of Barack Obama’s birth certificate via the White House archives indicates his birthday is August 4, 1961, making it impossible for the passport to be his.
Fact Check:
Barack Obama shared that he was “thrilled” Chicago has been chosen to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention in a recent tweet, according to local outlet NBC Chicago. Ahead of the 2024 convention, Obama is set to speak in Berlin on May 3, the Local Germany reported.
“Malik Obama is dropping docs proving Barack Obama was born in Nairobi, Kenya and was thus a FAKE and ILLEGITIMATE President,” the Instagram post, liked over 600 times, purports. The photos show a passport belonging to Mr. B.H. Obama.
The claim is false. There are no credible news reports suggesting the photos shared by Malik Obama indicate his brother, Barack Obama, was born in Kenya. Likewise, a copy of the former president’s birth certificate available via the White House archives clearly shows he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in August 1961. In addition, a closer look at the passport shows it was issued in April 1959, two years before Barack Obama was born, making it impossible for the document to be his.
Malik Obama also confirmed the passport belonged to his father, Barack Obama Sr., in an email to AFP.
“It’s my father’s passport,” he told the outlet, adding that he planned to auction it.
The false claim about the former president appears to have stemmed from an Apr. 11 Twitter thread in which Malik Obama shared photos of their father’s passport.
I tried to get fake ass to put this in his library but he wouldn’t pic.twitter.com/igmUQ7sgbe
— Malik Obama (@ObamaMalik) April 11, 2023
“I tried to get fake ass to put this in his library but he wouldn’t,” he captioned the thread, which has received thousands of views. “[The passport] should be in the National Archives,” he added. (RELATED: Is Barack Obama Relocating To Kenya In June?)
This is not the first time questions about the former president’s birthplace have arisen. Both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Donald Trump have speculated on where Obama was born during previous campaign cycles, according to BBC News.
Check Your Fact has contacted both Barack and Malik Obama for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.
