American woman who gave birth, in 2014, at Aga Khan hospital in Nairobi, Kenya says that misspellings and typos are still common on Kenyan birth certificates and that Kenyan birth certificates should be THOROUGHLY checked for accuracy.

The name of our website is Was Obama Born in Kenya.

We ask that question and we ask that readers consider the question as well while we present readers with our research, news reporting, criticism, comment, teaching and scholarship.

Some years ago it was pointed out that there may be a misspelling or typo found on a certified copy (2009) of Barack Hussein Obama II’s 1961 Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya birth certificate.

You can view the said certificate of birth here: 1961 Kenyan Birth Certificate of Barack Hussein Obama II, Copy.

Over the years we’ve conducted and presented research on misspellings, typos and other errors on birth certificates and other documents.  Some examples of prior research and reporting is included directly below.

Example 1:

Skeptics have pointed out that Dr. Maganga’s first name (Helton or Heltan?) was misspelled on the ink stamp which is affixed to the 2009 certified copy of Barack Hussein Obama II’s 1961 Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya certificate of birth.

Please take note of the above scan which we made of an envelope from 1957 which contains a misspelled United States Postal Service postmark. The USPS postmark spells Philadelphia as Philadelpia.

I have this 1957 postmarked envelope in my personal possession. I’m the owner and the acquisition was made in May 2011.

Read more at:  Helton/Heltan Maganga 2009 ink stamp on Barack Obama’s 1961 CPGH Kenyan certificate of birth.

Example 2:

At some point in 2009 I began to beat the bushes for tangible historical documents and records from Kenya.  I went to work on confirming authentication of the Barack Obama’s 1961 Coast Province General Hospital, Mombasa, British Protectorate of Kenya, certificate of birth.

There’d been some controversy (which I believe has, by now, been roundly settled) over whether or not 1961-Mombasa was located in Kenya or Zanzibar.

Jerome R. Corsi (a Harvard Ph.D – Political Science 1972) published several erroneous claims at a website called World Net Daily indicating that the city of Mombasa was part of Zanzibar until some time in the year 1964 when Kenya became a republic.   Dr. Corsi indicated that hospital birth records in Mombasa, in the year 1961, would list Mombasa as being part of, or located in, Zanzibar.

[NOTE:  Dr. Corsi often edits his work after publication, sometimes a single article may be modified, on 3 or 4 different occasions, with significant edits after publication, and without any notification whatsoever of what changes have been made.]

Other skeptics who didn’t agree with Dr. Corsi indicated themselves that while 1961-Mombasa was, indeed, located in Kenya that the name or title of the area where Mombasa is located was the Colony of Kenya, not the Protectorate of Kenya.

Please take note of the above scan which I made of a Mombasa, Kenya Protectorate letter card with affixed Tanganyika Kenya Uganda 20 cent postage stamp which is postmarked 10 MY 44 (10th day of May, 1944).

I have this 1944 postmarked letter card in my personal possession. I’m the owner and the acquisition was made in March 2011.

Read more at:  Mombasa, Kenya Protectorate. 1944.

Example 3:

There are many other examples which I’ve published in the past but the most recent example is an exceptional and first-rate one which we stumbled upon while reading about an American woman who is now living in Nairobi, Kenya.

Her name is Tara Wambugu.  She has a blog called Mama Mgeni which appears to contain posts going as far back July 2012.  The word mgeni means foreigner in Swahili.

Tara is a former emergency medical humanitarian aid worker who appears to have worked in countries such as the Congo (which one?), Uganda, Haiti, South Sudan and Uzbekistan.

She now lives in Nairobi, Kenya and is married (married 2010) to a Kenyan man named Jesse Wambugu (he’s a Kikuyu) and they have two daughters together.  The newest edition to the family was born this year, 2014.

Their daughter was born at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya on February 25th 2014.  This makes me remember Dr. Merry (or is it Marry or perhaps Mary?) Othigo who has worked at the Aga Khan Hospital.

On July 7th 2014 Tara Wambugu published an article at her blog which she titled, How to: Getting a birth certificate in Kenya. Its an interesting and thought-provoking piece and I thoroughly recommend that you read it.

In a comment below her article Tara indicated that she gave birth at a hospital, Aga Khan in Nairobi, Kenya.

In her article Tara informs the reader that in Kenya (2014), if your child was born at a hospital, the hospital sends a notification of birth to the Kenyan government (the registrar of your local City Hall) indicating that a birth took place.

She also informs the reader that the birth hospital is required to present the parents with a stub from the notification of birth before the mother is discharged from the hospital. Tara states, in all caps, (I suppose to emphasis importance), XXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but something about taking special care to hold on to the stub and not misplacing or losing it!

She indicates that the registrar of your local City Hall will forward a record of your child’s birth to the Birth Registry at Bishop’s House in Upper Hill.  This makes me remember that Dr. James Ang’awa who lived in the same neighborhood, Upper Hill, in Nairobi with Barack Obama Sr. during the 1970s and up thru Obama Sr.’s death in the early 1980s.

As you may know, the Kenyan doctor who delivered baby Barack Hussein Obama II was James Oyunga William Ang’awa:

Tara goes on to inform the reader that the process of obtaining your child’s Kenyan certificate of birth will typically take about four (4) weeks or more.  Parents can then take the stub from the notification of birth (which was provided by the hospital before the mother was discharged) to the Bishop’s House and, the word which Tara’s uses is “hopefully,” you will be issued a certificate of birth for your child.

Tara also provides an excellent bit of very telling and thought-provoking advice to the effect that parents need to (her caps, not mine), XXXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but something about misspellings and typos being very common on birth certificates in Kenya.  She said something to the effect that one must rigorously and exhaustively check birth certificates for errors and that Kenyans are genetically predisposed to misspelling names and other words.

It appears that Tara Wamgugu, and one of her friends (Lisa) from, or in, Kenya, were surprised that Tara didn’t have to pay a bribe to be issued a Kenyan birth certificate for her newly born child.

In a comment posted by Lisa on March 13th 2014 she indicates that when she (Lisa, not Tara) decided to give birth in America (I assume that means the United States) her first thoughts were that, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but was some sort of a joke about not having to pay a bribe for a birth certificate because she’s not giving birth in Kenya this time. She must be a baby-machine.  She (Lisa) also informs Tara that she knows a guy who issues (the words which Lisa’s uses are, he “types them up”) birth certificates.

Lisa goes on to state that when she used the word “bribe” she meant something small like buying lunch for the guy who types up the birth certificates.  Lisa ended her comment by telling Tara that, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but something about she had to break her own rule about paying bribes because it was just much too imperative and important not to pay the bribe. She also offers Tara the telephone number for the Kenyan guy of will type up birth certificates if you pay him a bribe.  She also says that she wants Tara and her Kikuyu husband and their half American half Kenyan offspring to be ok and healthy.

Tara responds to Lisa in comment posted on March 15th 2014 in which she states that, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but something about Tara being shocked that she didn’t end up having to pay a bribe for her newly born baby’s birth certificate, she (Tara) did not have to pay any bribes to get her daughter’s Kenyan birth certificate.  Tara ended her comment by stating, with punctuation and amazement, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (deleted quote because of copyright infringement claim by Tara Wambugu) but something to the effect that she was exceedingly astonished and thoroughly amazed that she didn’t have to pay a bribe for her little half American half Kenyan offspring birth certificate.

Conclusion:

It appears that paying bribes, contrary to what skeptics have indicated in the past, is somewhat common practice in Kenya when requesting a birth certificate.

It also appears that misspellings and typos are still, even in the year 2014, very common on Kenyan birth certificates.

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