A tweet published on December 25, 2020 claims that former United States President Barack Obama allegedly announced that he would apparently be running for president in Kenya.
Attached to the tweet is a link to an article published on the World News Daily Report website, which reports that Obama allegedly made the announcement when he visited Mombasa County in Kenya. The article further claims that the former U.S. president also allegedly launched his own Kenyan political party called ‘National Democratic Party of Kenya’.
Background
Barack Obama is the United States 44th president, who served for two terms- from 2009 to 2017. He became America’s first black president and was formerly the fifth African-American senator. Obama has unique ties to Kenya as his father was Kenyan. This has previously sparked controversies saying that he was born in Kenya, including a fabricated Kenyan birth certificate that circulated on social media.
Verification
Image reverse search results of the photos used on the World News Daily Report article reveal that one of the photos is from Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya in August 2006 when he was a senator. The other image is from Senegal when the former U.S. president visited Gorée Island in 2013.
Moreover, the article wrongly states that Kenya’s next general elections would be held in 2021. According to Kenya’s electoral commission, the general elections are slated for 2022. At the same time, a list of all Kenyan political parties as published by the Office of the Registrar of Parties does not include the National Democratic Party of Kenya which is alleged to be Barack Obama’s party.
The constitution of Kenya also requires that one must be a Kenyan citizen by birth for him/her to be eligible to vie for president. Despite controversies over his birthplace, Obama has previously said that he was born in Hawaii and his birth certificate was also published, indicating that he was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Barack Obama’s last visit to Kenya was in July 2018. Published media footage and reports of his visit in 2018 and previous years do not contain information claiming that he had declared his intention to vie for any political seat in Kenya.
Verdict
Claims that former United States President Barack Obama announced that he will be vying for president in Kenya are FALSE.
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