Barack Obama's siblings clash on Twitter over his Kenyan roots

WASHINTON, US - For the umpteenth time, the birthplace of former US President Barack Obama has been subjected to scrutiny, this time around, putting at loggerheads two of his famous siblings, whom he shares a father with.

Obama, a former Illinois senator and later a two-term president, retired in 2017 from State House. He became the first African American to occupy the Oval Office, a record which he broke in 2008 when he was first elected.

But despite his tremendous global achievements, his birthplace has been an epicenter of conspiracy theories, despite him proving a couple of times that he was born in the US, to his late mother Ann Dunham, who died in 1995 and Barack Obama Sr, a Kenyan economist who died in 1972 in a road crash.

On Monday, his eldest half-brother, Malik Obama, reignited the controversial topic on his Twitter account, posting what resembled a birth certificate of Barack Obama Jr, which has since triggered harsh response from one of their sisters.

The alleged certificate indicates that Barack Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya's second-largest city within the coastal strip of the Indian Ocean on August 4th of 1961. The alleged certificate entails details of Obama, including those of his parents.

"What's this? Malik, a critic of his half-brother, questioned in a Twitter, posting the certificate, which, however, had notable errors, like referring Kenya as a republic, which was not the case when the document was allegedly generated.

In 1961, Kenya was still a colony of the British. The East Africa nation gained independence in 1963 and become a republic on 12th December in 1964, thus rendering the information on the document "null and void".

So divisive that was Malik's post that it attracted retribution from his sister, Dr. Auma Obama, an educationist and CEO of Sauti Kuu Foundation, who is also very close to Barack Obama, a relationship which can be traced back to 80s when they were reunited in Kenya.

In her tweet, Auma dismissed Malik as a person "blindly consumed by jealousy and bitterness", wondering why his brother was hell-bent to defame their famous half-brother, who records indicate that he was born in the US, in the said date.

"Just because he has outshone you in every single aspect of his life. Seek relevance elsewhere big brother!" she said in a tweet.

"Long before he even knew he would be president my little brother visited his fatherland and was embraced by all!!! Malik, you took center stage in welcoming him," added Auma, who grew up in Germany, posting a YouTube video of Obama's trip to Kenya in 1987.

Documents in the public domain indicate that Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at the Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, who was born in Kansas, was staying in Hawaii with Barack Obama Sr, then a student in the US.

This is not the first time Malik is sharing the document, in which he seems to suggest that his younger half-brother, Obama, was born in Mombasa. In 2017, he posted the document, further raising questions about his integrity.

It featured Mr. Obama’s correct date of birth and includes the masthead: “Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya”. He also accompanied it with a photo of him and Barack Obama in the remote village of Siaya County, around 400 kilometers west of the capital, Nairobi, where their father was born.

And a sheriff from Phoenix, Arizona, insisted Mr. Obama's birth certificate was "fake" after allegedly investigating for five years, further supporting Malik's claims. To be a US presidential candidate, one must showcase that he or she's a citizen by birth.

Born Barack Hussein Obama, the former US president inherited all names of his father, who subscribed to the Islamic religion. His grandfather, Onyango Hussein Obama, a World War 1 veteran, was polygamous just like his father, who had four known wives.

They included; Kezia Aoko, his first wife and mother to Malik and Auma, Ann Dunham, the mother to Barack Obama, Ruth Baker, whom he had two children with, and his youngest wife, Jael Otieno. Barack Sr had a total of 8 children.

In one of the interviews with the Washington Post, Malik, who is a close friend of current US President Donald Trump, opened up about his strained relationship with Barack, in which among others, he accused him of opposing Barack Obama's foundation, which he had registered.

“My brother didn’t help me at all,” Malik told the New York Post, referring to a foundation he started in their shared father's name. “He wanted me to shut it down when I set it up. He hasn’t supported me at all.”

In the United States, Malik has worked mostly as an accountant for organizations in and around the D.C. area, including the American Red Cross, Lockheed Martin, and Fannie Mae. He is registered to vote in Maryland. He'll be casting his ballot for Trump.

GAROWE ONLINE