The Obamas are involved in an ugly Twitter war over the birth of 44th US President Barack Obama.
This is after his elder brother, Malik, shared a fake birth certificate supposedly belonging to President Obama and posed, “What is this”?
The document insinuates that Obama was born in Kenya, a claim that almost soiled his presidential bid in 2008.
What's this? pic.twitter.com/H9HRzro8zZ
— Malik Obama (@ObamaMalik) June 15, 2020
In a rejoinder, his sister, Auma Obama, replied: “So blindly consumed by #jealousy and #bitterness that you will go to any length to slander your younger brother’s name – literally! Just because he has outshone you in EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of his life. Seek relevance elsewhere big brother!”
“Long before he even knew he would be president my little brother visited his fatherland and was embraced by all!!! Malik you took centre stage in welcoming him!!!” she added.
Kenya’s deported lawyer Miguna Miguna urged Malik to let his brother live in peace, and to stop helping President Donald Trump, “a white supremacist, smear your brother in the mud”.
He retorted, “Why don’t he speak up for you? He’s fake.”
“What he has done to me is like what [President] Uhuru [Kenyatta] did to you. We loved him with all our hearts but he turned his back on us and poured humiliation upon humiliation on us. Stingy as s**t! When he had nothing and came to Kenya we welcomed him with open arms and shared with him…” he added.
THE BIRTH CONTROVERSY
In April 2011, the White House was forced to release copies of President Obama’s original long-form birth certificate in an attempt to put an end to persistent rumours that he was not born in the US but Kenya.
The certificate showed Obama was born at Honolulu’s Kapiolani Hospital on August 4, 1961.
Conspiracy theorists claimed he was born in Kenya, and thus was constitutionally ineligible to serve as US president.
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” Obama told reporters at the White House. “I’ve been puzzled at the degree to which this (story) just kept on going.”
“Normally I would not comment on something like this,” the president said. But the country has “some enormous challenges out there” that it will not be able to effectively meet “if we’re distracted”, he said then.
DIFFERENCES WITH MALIK
Malik Obama is a naturalized US citizen, and he’s the half brother of Barack.
He was born, raised and studied in Kenya.
The two first met for the first time in 1985, when Barack flew from Chicago to Washington to visit Malik.
In his book, Dreams From My Father, Barack describes how Malik left him stranded at night, having him to find a cheap hotel to sleep.
They still became close friends and even served as best-man at each other’s weeding.
They met again when Barack brought Michelle to Kenya.
They parted ways at some point and Malik is now an ardent supporter of Trump. At the Trump campaign’s request, Malik was part of the audience of the presidential debate in Las Vegas.
When GQ profiled Malik in 2013, he claimed he and Obama shared a knack for leadership because it is “all in the genes.” He, however, run for Siaya governor only to garner one per cent of the vote.
It is said he feels jealous of is younger brother’ success, whereas he is the elder sibling, now at 62.
Malik has worked mostly as an accountant for organizations in and around the DC. area, including the American Red Cross, Lockheed Martin and Fannie Mae. He is registered to vote in Maryland.
“My brother didn’t help me at all,” Malik told the New York Post, referring to a foundation he started in their shared father’s name.
“He wanted me to shut it down when I set it up. He hasn’t supported me at all.”
He is likely to have been infuriated when Barack visited Kenya to launch Auma’s Sauti Kuu Foundation in July 2018.
