Birther Movement

In U.S. politics, the Birther Movement claims that Barack Obama is not a legitimate President because he does not meet the Constitutional requirement of having been born in the United States, or of U.S. citizen parents. One branch of the movement claims he was not born in the state of Hawaii. Another claims that even though he may have been born there, he is legally a citizen of Kenya, his father's country.

Obviously, since he is a sitting President, neither argument, or indeed some other variants such as claims he was actually born in Kenya or Indonesia, do not have widespread credibility. Nevertheless, it is a matter of intense concern to some factions and individuals, who generally oppose Obama on ideological grounds. Other analysts consider it a conspiracy theory.

Dual citizenship issue

Factcheck.org agrees that Obama may, indeed, have held dual American-Kenyan citizenship until he was 21, which was consistent with being born in the United States but of a Kenyan father. Kenyan law provides that a child of a Kenyan citizen, born in another country, is assumed to be a dual citizen, but, The statement that he continues to have dual citizenship came from an August 6, 2008 article in the Rocky Mountain News, which it subsequently retracted. "The paper's editor, John Temple, formally apologized for the error in an Aug. 15, 2007, column."

The basis of the theory is that at the time of Obama's birth, Kenya was still a British colony, and the British Nationality Act of 1948 applied to the elder Obama and his children: "British Nationality Act of 1948 (Part II, Section 5): Subject to the provisions of this section, a person born after the commencement of this Act shall be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if his father is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of the birth."

When Kenya became independent in 1963, Chapter VI, Section 87 of its Constitution specifies:

1. Every person who, having been born in Kenya, is on 11th December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or a British protected person shall become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December, 1963...
2. Every person who, having been born outside Kenya, is on 11th December, 1963 a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies or a British protected person shall, if his father becomes, or would but for his death have become, a citizen of Kenya by virtue of subsection (1), become a citizen of Kenya on 12th December, 1963.

Kenyan law further specifies, however, that unless a child renounces non-Kenyan citizenship and swears an oath of loyalty to Kenya, by his 21st birthday, the presumed Kenyan citizenship automatically expires. "Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1984."

McCain Campaign

The general counsel of the John McCain campaign, Trevor Potter, does not consider the allegations credible.

To the extent that we could, we looked into the substantive side of these allegations. We never saw any evidence that then-Senator Obama had been born outside of the United States. We saw rumors, but nothing that could be sourced to evidence. There were no statements and no documents that suggested he was born somewhere else. On the other side, there was proof that he was born in Hawaii. There was a certificate issued by the state's Department of Health, and the responsible official in the state saying that he had personally seen the original certificate. There was a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser, which would be very difficult to invent or plant 47 years in advance.

December 2009 Palin comments

On 4 December 2009, the matter received additional attention after Sarah Palin said, on the Rusty Humphries radio show, "I think it's a fair question, just like I think past associations and past voting records -- all of that is fair game." Soon afterwards, she posted to her Facebook page, that while others have raised the question, she has not directly done so:

At no point - not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews - have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States. Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I've pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly,"