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Barack Obama's Trump-supporting half-brother Malik tweets Kenya birth certificate

The document appears to be a forgery that was circulated in 2009

Peter Walker
Friday 10 March 2017 10:22 EST
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Malik Obama, the older brother of Barack, holds an undated picture outside his shop in Siaya in eastern Kenya
Malik Obama, the older brother of Barack, holds an undated picture outside his shop in Siaya in eastern Kenya (AP)

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Barack Obama’s half-brother has once again repeated the discredited claim that the former US President was born in Kenya.

Ardent Donald Trump supporter, Malik Obama tweeted a copy of what he said was a valid birth certificate proving that his half-brother was born in Mombasa, the West African nation's second city.

It featured Mr Obama’s correct date of birth and includes the masthead: “Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya”.

Alongside the picture, he wrote: “Surely. What’s this?”

Malik Obama has repeatedly pedalled "birther conspiracy" claims that the politician was born abroad.

The 55-year-old former president has been dogged with questions about his birthplace since his US Senate campaign in 2004.

The issue, along with questions about his religion, have been frequently discussed matters within right-wing circles and conspiracy theorists, although they have mostly been limited to fringe Conservative news websites.

The unfounded rumours were largely meant to call into question the legitimacy of his presidency. All US presidents must be born in America, according to Article Two of the country's constitution.

Pennsylvania Democrat Philip J Berg also attempted to sue him over his birthplace in 2008 and Donald Trump was vocal about the issue for more than five years before he publicly acknowledged last September that Mr Obama was born in the US.

To silence the rumours, Mr Obama published his birth certificate in 2008, which gives Hawaii as the place of birth, and his long-form certificate in 2011.

These were confirmed by the Hawaii Department of Health and corroborated by contemporaneous birth announcements published in local newspapers.

The document tweeted by Malik Obama appears to be the same forgery that right-wing blogger Lucas Smith tried to sell on eBay in 2009.

The website removed the page because of its policy of barring its users from selling purported government documents.

Malik Obama has nonetheless embraced the unfounded claims and has made a string of wild and bizarre accusations about his half-brother.

He once told American filmmaker Joel Gilbert that Mr Obama’s real father was socialist thinker Frank Marshall Davis.

Asked to comment on the supposed birth certificate by The Independent, he demanded $10,000 (£8,200) to speak.

In a separate interview, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he has to queue up like everyone else to speak to Mr Obama.

Black Republican radio show host Wayne Dupree responded to his tweet yesterday.

He said: “That’s old… he’s out of office now… moving on right? You really think a Republican congress is going to do something… Send it up… I’ll watch.”

A Phoenix sheriff has also insisted Mr Obama's birth certificate was "fake" after allegedly investigating for five years.

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