Shocking: New Kenyan Birth Certificate for Obama (revised)

It’s possible to buy a fake birth certificate direct from Kenya for about $100 (I have one for myself around here somewhere). Real Kenyan certificates typically consist of a government official hand typing information from the birth registry onto a form and then certifying it.

What we see here is a very badly done fake certificate today in a longish video attributed to the anonymous TheSmokingGun. (The new certificate appears at 20:14 in the video.) This certificate is obviously not an official record. First, an official certificate would be typed, not hand written. Second, the date format is in the US order (month, day, year) instead of the Kenyan format (day, month, year). The paper wrinkle pattern is a nice touch in a fake because in some minds wrinkled = old. Real official documents are rarely wrinkled and birth certificates are important documents, not something one wads up and puts in a drawer. But when real documents are wrinkled, the printing gets wrinkled along with the paper!GhostGhostGhost

The big give away is the contradiction in the document itself. It says “BIRTH in Coast Provincial General Hospital in the city of Mombasa” but below it says under Where and when born “King George VI Hospital” (in Nairobi).  A final kiss of death is the legend at the bottom:

THIS DOCUMENT certifies and affirms that the registrant is a native-born citizen of the Kenya Colony of the United Kingdom and is duly a subject of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

Certified and affirmed by Her Majesty’s Office of Vital Documents for Kenya Colony, municipality of Nairobi.

That’s a phrase that only a birther could love, but it’s not from a Kenyan birth certificate. In fact there is not a single occurrence (before this article) of the phrase “citizen of the Kenya Colony” on the entire Internet, says Google and Bing. Why? Because they were subjects, not citizens. (No wonder comments are disabled on the video site, so that folks can’t point out the obvious inconsistencies.)

Most of the video consists of reading authentic excerpts from speeches from the Parliament, one of which appears to say that President Obama was born in Kenya (however, there is no reason to believe that the speaker in Kenya had any actual information about Obama’s birthplace) and rehashing Kenyan stories that we’ve discussed in the past.

Obama’s REAL BC FOUND ~ Kenyan Parliament: Obama NOT a Native American, he is Son of this Soil from TheSmokingGun on Vimeo.

The video is also a classic example of conspiracy thinking, with normal events linked together to form a web of conspiracy (here US efforts to prevent AIDS in Africa are seen as payback to a Mombasa hospital for hiding that the President was born there). Much of what we see from birthers is just a dump of arguments, but here we see the threads of the conspiracy developed.

About Dr. Conspiracy

I'm not a real doctor, but I have a master's degree.
This entry was posted in Birth Certificate, Fakes and frauds, Videos and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

52 Responses to Shocking: New Kenyan Birth Certificate for Obama (revised)

  1. Lupin says:

    And Obama’s trip to France was to thank us for creating really buttery croissants that don’t make you fat.

    We’re in the wrong business here. PT Barnum was right.

  2. Thrifty says:

    It boggles the mind that no matter which government official from the State of Hawaii–who have worked with birth certificates and vital records their entire life–reaffirms the authenticity of the Hawaiian birth certificate, Birthers don’t believe them. Yet any random schmuck from any segment of the Kenyan government who says “Obama was born in Kenya!”, they take as Gospel.

    Have any Kenyan officials come out and said that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii? If so what was the Birther reaction?

  3. bovril says:

    The whole thing has the stink of KBOA Tracey all over it….

  4. John says:

    Good video! Contains information that has never been settled. Should have included the following information:
    INTEL REPORT: KENYANS HONOR OBAMA’S BIRTHPLACE’
    http://www.wnd.com/2011/05/303165/
    An internal bulletin from the Kenyan National Security Intelligence Service, or NSIS, states that the Kenyan government in 2009 commissioned a cultural museum in the Obama home village of Kogelo to honor the “birthplace of President Barack Obama” and rededicate the tomb of his father, Barack Obama Sr.

  5. J. Potter says:

    And I was thinking it was too late to start ginning up fakes just to spoof the birthers! Aaargh!

  6. I wonder whatever happened to those old Weekly World News printing presses?

  7. Lupin says:

    Bill DuBerger: I wonder whatever happened to those old Weekly World News printing presses?

    BAT-BOY! YAY!

  8. Majority Will says:

    bovril:
    The whole thing has the stink of KBOA Tracey all over it….

    Mildew, roadkill and shame?

  9. Bob says:

    I really don’t understand these people. They will not, cannot move on. It’s been three years and they haven’t gotten off the dime. They don’t even understand how stupid they appear.

  10. Rule 1: Never let WorldNetDaily tell you what some one else said.
    Rule 2: Be suspicious whenever someone presents unverified statements from an intelligence service

    John: INTEL REPORT: KENYANS HONOR OBAMA’S BIRTHPLACE’

  11. Yes.

    “It’s madness. His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.”

    – Jon Chessoni
    – First Secretary, Kenyan Embassy, Washington DC

    No reaction that I’ve ever seen.

    Thrifty: Have any Kenyan officials come out and said that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii? If so what was the Birther reaction?

  12. Atticus Finch says:

    Anyone familar with the date month year format of the British will notice immediately that in the first box under the heading “Where and when born” that the date is August, 4 1961 which the American style format and not the British style format and as such is a fake.

  13. OK, so it is an American fake and not what I suspected, an authentic Kenyan fake. This “mistake” might have been intentional so as to make it consistent with the Lucas Smith fake certificate that also has the US date order.

    Atticus Finch: Anyone familar with the date month year format of the British will notice immediately that in the first box under the heading “Where and when born” that the date is August, 4 1961 which the American style format and not the British style format and as such is a fake.

  14. It is possible to understand them. Birthers suffer from some pretty common errors in thinking that exist to a more or lesser extent in us all. Conspiracy theories are very tenacious things and they don’t respond well to negative evidence.

    Bob: I really don’t understand these people. They will not, cannot move on

  15. richCares says:

    “OK, so it is an American fake ”
    no it is not a fake, it is real, however the name has been changed from Colbert to Obama.
    Yes, Colbert was born in Kenya so how can he run for prez?

  16. Joe Acerbic says:

    Perhaps you could also notice that the paper background is wrinkled but the “print” isn’t. LOL.

  17. Sef says:

    Atticus Finch:
    Anyone familar with the date month year format of the British will notice immediately that in the first box under the heading “Where and when born” that the date is August, 4 1961 which the American style format and not the British style format and as such is a fake.

    Uh oh! Gotta go make another one.

  18. Northland10 says:

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    OK, so it is an American fake and not what I suspected, an authentic Kenyan fake. This “mistake” might have been intentional so as to make it consistent with the Lucas Smith fake certificate that also has the US date order.

    Not only do they need better trained and competent lawyers, it would appear they have a serious lack in the training and competence of their forgers.

  19. Northland10 says:

    Dr. Conspiracy: Rule 1: Never let WorldNetDaily tell you what some one else said

    I see WND changed their format. They must be hiding something. It is refreshing however, that, if you go their you do not have to scroll past the various ads for gold issues and seeds. I could never tell which one was an add and which was an actual article. Luckily, I do not go their very often.

  20. J. Potter says:

    Not that I have ever forged anything (*cough*), but if i had, I would start by getting an authentic example of what i was attempting to emulate. That doesn’t seem to have been the starting point for the BC forgeries i have seen re: Obama. Except for the guy teh White House used. Dang, he’s good. 😉

  21. Obsolete says:

    Joe Acerbic:
    Perhaps you could also notice that the paper background is wrinkled but the “print” isn’t. LOL.

    DING! DING! DING! DING!
    But it sure fooled John and got his hopes up all over again…

    (I also watched the video and noticed it was actually made up of different clips “edited” together to make it appear as a seamless video!!! If they edit one thing, who’d to say they didn’t edit something important out?)

    ^birfer logic above

  22. Well, you just have to actually look at the thing to see it’s fake. At the top it says Birth at Coast Provincial General Hospital, and in the middle it says place of birth King George VI Hospital. The former is in Mombasa and the latter in Nairobi.

  23. ellen says:

    re:

    ““It’s madness. His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.”

    I’d like to be able to quote that from time to time. Is there a citation? Was it in the press or on the Web–or did you call?

  24. dunstvangeet says:

    Dr. Conspiracy, I thought I saw this birth certificate about 2-3 years ago. I’m quite certain I saw something like this before. The format really looks familiar.

  25. Northland10 says:

    I found a copy of the the same certificate here, in what appears to be an old post:

    http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/obamabirthfinal.php

    When I saved the image and took a look in the properties, I found:

    Date Taken: 7/28/2009 11:32 am
    Program Name: Adobe Photoshop CS3

    And in the Title and Description:

    “NOTICE: This image is a work of parody and political commentary. It is not a genuine government document. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. A certified copy of his birth record is freely available online. If you thought this was Obama’s real birth certificate, a “smoking gun” proving he’s not a natural-born citizen, then congratulations. You are an idiot. I made this from scratch. It is completely fake, and no document from Kenya or the United Kingdom resembles it. Obama’s president, and will be for the next 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 years. Get used to it.”

    Did KBOA actually fall for this?

    Dr. Conspiracy:
    Well, you just have to actually look at the thing to see it’s fake. At the top it says Birth at Coast Provincial General Hospital, and in the middle it says place of birth King George VI Hospital. The former isin Mombasa and the latter in Nairobi.

  26. Pastor Charmleyq says:

    This is an obvious fake for many reasons. First of all, we have the two hospitals, located hundreds of miles apart, both listed as the place of birth. Obama can only have been born in one place at one time (logic dictates this, you know). This means that the ‘where born’ and ‘born in’ fields MUST read the same. That they do not is a sign that this is probably faked in order to prank the birthers, who instead of immediately discounting the certificate try to come up with reasons why it might have such a ridiculous inconsistency on it.

    Then it’s not typed. The reason is no doubt that the forger could not obtain a manual typewriter, and the use of a computer would give the game away, since computers do not leave an impression the way that manual typewriters do.

    And then there is what is NOT on the certificate, which is immediately obvious from the comparison with the British certificate flashed up on the screen: The official seal that actually confirms a certificate’s authenticity. Without it anyone can take a blank and fill it in with whatever information they like, then claim it is a real birth certificate. No seal=worthless. Even if it’s typed, it needs a seal to confirm its authenticity.

    Then, it’s crumpled. Offical documents in storage since the 1960s would not be crumpled, but pressed flat. Only creases created by folding would remain visible, and there are (and would be) none.

    And finally, despite the best efforts of our video-producer, the various fake documents are in fact mutually exclusive. The options are as follows: either one of them is real and the rest fake, or they are all fake (which is the case). The fact is that the Kenya nonsense is dead in the water, what we have are a number of contradictory stories, the facts of which have not been investigated by those who put them forward. This is why the ‘2 citizen parents’ idea has been invented!

  27. Pastor Charmley says:

    It happens I’m doing a lot of work with British documents from the period right now, so I speak with some knowledge of how they look after being stored in a cupboard in a chapel for decades.

  28. Northland10 says:

    And so, feeling self-torture was a worthy activity for my Friday, I actually watched part of her latest video that will end the usurpation or something. At 16:33, she states that the Obats claim that Ang’awa did not work at Coast Province but instead at King George VI Hospital in Nairobi. She then states she will prove that he worked in King George VI Hospital.

    Huh? On the same frame, she said the Obots claimed King George VI Hospital, so she is going to show them by proving they were right? The next frame is an article that he was taking on a new position at King George VI after serving at a Chest (not Coast) hospital in Mombasa.

    Yes, she proved he was not at Coast Province and that he was a respiratory specialist and not an OB/GYN (though, I figure he could still deliver a child or two if necessary).

  29. J. Potter says:

    Northland10: I found a copy of the the same certificate here, in what appears to be an old post:

    Note the curious conclusion in that post:

    Well, for one thing the government and the corporate media are desperate to wreck the credibility of the blogs and alternative media. Therefore, this birth certificate story appears to be is a propaganda operation intended to lure unsuspecting blogs and radio hosts into committing to it, only to have Obama then produce whatever correct documents will prove him a natural-born US citizen. The Kenya birth certificates will be admitted as fakes by their creators, and the corporate media will have a field day bashing the blogs and radio shows that fell for the hoax.

    Explaining a conspiracy theory with … another conspiracy theory! Whooooo!

  30. I appreciate all the comments and observations as to why this birth certificate is not only fake, but beyond credibility. I must agree with you that this one could only have been something done as a prank.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the video disappears without comment pretty soon as I suspect that the person who made it visits this web site. I kept a copy of the image to use, should the video go away.

    Pastor Charmleyq: That they do not is a sign that this is probably faked in order to prank the birthers, who instead of immediately discounting the certificate try to come up with reasons why it might have such a ridiculous inconsistency on it.

  31. misha says:

    “It’s possible to buy a fake birth certificate direct from Kenya for about $100”

    Here’s one for my cat:
    http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2009/10/another-kenya-birth-certificate-for-my.html

  32. Lee Best says:

    As a right-wing conservative, I believe that a Black person with an exotic name becoming President of the US is a radical notion that scares me.

    But I also realize that I can’t really talk about his race because it’s politically incorrect and would only backfire on my cause. So I need code words to get angry about to hide my ulterior motive of disliking Obama because I don’t want a Black Presidnet.

    So far, I’ve come up with these words & topics to use:

    Socialist
    Marxist
    Maoist
    Kenyan
    Muslim
    Radical
    Claim he wants to kill Seniors with health care
    Claim he’s a reparations President
    Talking about his birth certificate
    Project my own racism on to him by claiming he hates White people
    Get outraged when he tells school children to do well in school
    Claim that he hates America
    Call for his impeachment even though he has committed no impeachable offense
    Claim he got to where he is with affirmative action

    So… any other ideas I can use to express my anger of this Black President while using other subjects that deviate from race, to not only fool others, but to fool myself as to why I really have so much hatred for Obama?

    Thanks in advance.

  33. Majority Will says:

    Lee Best:
    As a right-wing conservative, I believe that a Black person with an exotic name becoming President of the US is a radical notion that scares me.

    But I also realize that I can’t really talk about his race because it’s politically incorrect and would only backfire on my cause. So I need code words to get angry about to hide my ulterior motive of disliking Obama because I don’t want a Black Presidnet.

    So far, I’ve come up with these words & topics to use:

    Socialist
    Marxist
    Maoist
    Kenyan
    Muslim
    Radical
    Claim he wants to kill Seniors with health care
    Claim he’s a reparations President
    Talking about his birth certificate
    Project my own racism on to him by claiming he hates White people
    Get outraged when he tells school children to do well in school
    Claim that he hates America
    Call for his impeachment even though he has committed no impeachable offense
    Claim he got to where he is with affirmative action

    So… any other ideas I can use to express my anger of this Black President while using other subjects that deviate from race, to not only fool others, but to fool myself as to why I really have so much hatred for Obama?

    Thanks in advance.

    Well done.

  34. misha says:

    Lee Best: I realize that I can’t really talk about his race because it’s politically incorrect and would only backfire on my cause. I need code words to get angry about to hide my ulterior motive of disliking Obama because I don’t want a Black Presidnet. So far, I’ve come up with these words & topics to use: any other ideas I can use to express my anger of this Black President while using other subjects that deviate from race, to not only fool others, but to fool myself as to why I really have so much hatred for Obama?

    Thanks in advance.

    Obama is a Pastafarian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

  35. Joe Acerbic says:

    Lee, you forgot this one: “foodstamp President”.

  36. misha says:

    Lee Best: any other ideas I can use to express my anger

    He got to where he is with the help of a welfare queen.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen

  37. Whatever4 says:

    ellen:
    re:

    ““It’s madness. His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.”

    I’d like to be able to quote that from time to time. Is there a citation? Was it in the press or on the Web–or did you call?

    The quote is from: http://washingtonindependent.com/53654/forged-kenyan-document-splinters-birther-movement Dave Weigel called the embassy. There’s more:

    “Chessoni didn’t understand what Taitz was talking about or what her discovery (the gift of an “anonymous source” who’s “afraid for his life”) was supposed to prove. He showed the image to other embassy employees, who rolled their eyes at what was, for some, only the latest forgery being passed off as an official document from Kenya. “It’s a red herring,” said Chessoni. “Maybe there are not enough facts out there.””

  38. Pastor Charmley says:

    No seal, no authentication, it’s that simple. Especially with that cat certificate. Where it says at the bottom ‘This is… certifies’ there should be a seal. The blanks were printed with the wording on, so the words on their own prove nothing. Without a seal all we have is a blank that someone has filled in, and as has been proved, anyone can fill in a blank.

  39. nbc says:

    <No seal, no authentication, it’s that simple

    Good thing that the two birth certificates the President provided did have the seal.

  40. Lupin says:

    Pastor Charmley: No seal, no authentication, it’s that simple. Especially with that cat certificate. Where it says at the bottom This is… certifies’ there should be a seal. The blanks were printed with the wording on, so the words on their own prove nothing. Without a seal all we have is a blank that someone has filled in, and as has been proved, anyone can fill in a blank.

    Surely if I could see the seals on the photos, so can you????

  41. Lupin says:

    Lee Best: So… any other ideas I can use to express my anger of this Black President while using other subjects that deviate from race, to not only fool others, but to fool myself as to why I really have so much hatred for Obama?

    Speaks some French?

  42. Lupin says:

    Lupin: Surely if I could see the seals on the photos, so can you????

    I meant on the Hawaii certificate(s). Not the bogus one here. I think I got confused. Never mind.

  43. nbc says:

    Lupin: Surely if I could see the seals on the photos, so can you????

    They are visible with a bit of effort. Next myth…

  44. Pastor Charmley says:

    A seal in this case should look something like that on the British certificate seen in the video – a large red thing, not just discreet embossing. As it stands, this has no provenance, two different places of birth listed on the certificate (a physical impossibility, I might add), handwriting rather than a typewriter, and no seal. Not to mention the date in American format. I have concluded that this is a hoax designed to prank the birthers so that they will defend an obvious fake.

  45. nbc says:

    Not to mention the date in American format. I have concluded that this is a hoax designed to prank the birthers so that they will defend an obvious fake.

    Or reject an obvious real BC? The birthers are so gullible..

  46. Northland10 says:

    Lupin: Speaks some French?

    Michelle Obama apparently likes FRENCH fries (and Savage has a mad about it).

    http://noisyroom.net/blog/2011/09/16/michael-savage-michelle-obama-hypocrisy-eating-french-fries-and-promoting-health/

  47. Paul Pieniezny says:

    Northland10:
    I found a copy of the the same certificate here, in what appears to be an old post:

    http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/obamabirthfinal.php

    When I saved the image and took a look in the properties, I found:

    Date Taken:7/28/2009 11:32 am
    Program Name:Adobe Photoshop CS3

    And in the Title and Description:

    “NOTICE: This image is a work of parody and political commentary. It is not a genuine government document. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. A certified copy of his birth record is freely available online. If you thought this was Obama’s real birth certificate, a “smoking gun” proving he’s not a natural-born citizen, then congratulations. You are an idiot. I made this from scratch. It is completely fake, and no document from Kenya or the United Kingdom resembles it. Obama’s president, and will be for the next 3 1/2 to 7 1/2 years. Get used to it.”

    Did KBOA actually fall for this?

    Haha, that is the “Afrikaans” birth certificate. In fact, the security watermarking contains the same message, but in Afrikaans, a language close to Ducth, spoken exclusively in South Africa.

    http://nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com/category/myths/canadian-birth-certificate/

    (it is the last one on that page)

    Well, it is not the only parody birfers fell for, hook, line and sinker. Maybe it was the first one however.

    Obama could not have been born in Nairobi, because the hospitals in Nairobi were strictly segregated almost until independence.

  48. misha says:

    Paul Pieniezny: Obama could not have been born in Nairobi, because the hospitals in Nairobi were strictly segregated almost until independence.

    The hospitals in Mombasa were not segregated. [Ow, stop hitting me.]

  49. Paul Pieniezny says:

    misha: The hospitals in Mombasa were not segregated. [Ow, stop hitting me.]

    Objection, assumes facts not in evidence.

    Actually, the birfers assume that on the basis of all them eebil Mooslins living there. But the Muslims living in Mombasa do not look much like Arabs.

    There were still a lot of Indians (not taxed) living there, however.

    Mombasa also has that eebil mooslim ring to it. Too bad it did not have an airport, and the trains did not run.

  50. ellen says:

    Whatever4

    Many thanks for the link. I will bookmark it.

  51. Paul Smith says:

    So. . .are you suggesting that it isn’t possible to do the same thing in Hawaii {snicker}?

  52. Paul Pieniezny says:

    Paul Pieniezny: Haha, that is the “Afrikaans” birth certificate. In fact, the security watermarking contains the same message, but in Afrikaans, a language close to Ducth, spoken exclusively in South Africa.

    http://nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com/category/myths/canadian-birth-certificate/

    (it is the last one on that page)

    Well, it is not the only parody birfers fell for, hook, line and sinker. Maybe it was the first one however.

    Obama could not have been born in Nairobi, because the hospitals in Nairobi were strictly segregated almost until independence.

    My wrong again. When in 2009 freepers started mentioning the correct text, I knew it was Dutch after all. No double negatives.

    Good grief, this thing is from 2009 …

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