Enter Kenya-gate.
From the instant that Bill Clinton was elected President in 1992, and through both terms of his presidency, he was dogged by one overriding and overreaching investigation that cost
US taxpayers millions of dollars and a good bit of embarrassment: Whitewater. Now we are about two weeks from an election which may very well see the first African-American elected President of the United States.
As you know, the rumor mill surrounding Barack Obama has been swirling stronger than usual, mostly regarding his race. You’ve heard them, or probably received the e-mails: he’s a Muslim, he “pals around” with terrorists, and probably the most persistent, he’s not a US citizen. This is probably the one that the GOP (what’s left of them) in congress, and their supporters, will seize upon. And, like Whitewater, they will drag the rest of the country through the mud and slime, all for the benefit of their own embattled party ego. In the Whitewater investigation, all that was discovered was an extra-marital affair. Nothing illegal was done regarding the whole Whitewater deal (though he was cited for perjury regarding his affair with “that woman”), but the embarrassment to his family and the country was sickening enough.
Now I somehow wouldn’t expect that Barack Obama has some chickenhead ghetto intern on the side, but I’d hate for some petty GOP vengeance investigation to end up hurting his family, particularly his children. So to spare them, and us, the drama, not to mention the cost, of 4 to 8 years of digging through the DC political underbelly, I’m going to put the facts that I’ve been able to find out there in this blog. This is all based on my own research, but I do believe the sources to be credible.
Let’s start with the rumor itself. The rumor is that Barack Obama is not a US citizen. The reasons for this range from him having a duel-citizenship, to him not being born in America. Part of this stems from a newspaper article written in 2007 that incorrectly stated that he held both Kenyan and American citizenship (a no-no for running for president according to the Constitution). The truth is that when he was born in Honolulu, HI, Kenya was a part of the United Kingdom. His father, being a Kenyan native, was considered a British subject, which at the time extended to the children of Kenyan natives, regardless of where they were physically born. As a result, technically Obama did hold citizenship in both the US and the United Kingdom. When Kenya formally gained its independence in 1963, Obama’s father automatically became a Kenyan citizen. Again, that status was passed down to Barack Obama.
However, Kenyan law does not allow dual citizenship for adults. According to the Kenyan constitution:
A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya. made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.
In other words, upon turning 21, a Kenyan holding duel citizenship must either renounce his foreign citizenship, or cease being a citizen of Kenya. Barack Obama has never renounced his US citizenship, and therefore ceased to be a Kenyan citizen and has since held only one citizenship, that of a United States citizen.
The second part of this rumor, that Obama was not born in the United States, is easy to disprove. That is, for those willing to accept the facts. Factcheck.org obtained a copy of Obama’s birth certificate, which states that he was born in Hololulu, HI on August 4, 1961. The original certificate resides at Obama’s Chicago headquarters, and according to factcheck contains all of the markings, including the raised seal, and is stamped by the Hawaii state registrar.
Now I’m well aware that the “no-information” voter is probably incapable of allowing themselves to accept anything that runs contrary to what they have brainwashed themselves to believe as fact. But the proof is here, and is readily available for anyone willing to examine it. I leave it to you to take it as you will.
Sources:
FactCheck.org: Born in the USA - http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
FactCheck.org: Has Obama’s Birth Certificate Been Disclosed - http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/has_obamas_birth_certificate_been_disclosed.html
PolitiFact: Obama’s Birth Certificate: Final Chapter - http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/jun/27/obamas-birth-certificate-part-ii/
The Constitution of Kenya: Chapter 2 – The Executive - http://kenya.rcbowen.com/constitution/chap6.html#97
