I haven’t read all 1500+ posts so I’m sorry if this has already been mentioned but... has anyone looked at a map of Kenya? Mombasa is in the far southeastern corner of the country, right on the coast (hence the hospital name). It’s about as far as you can get from Obama’s family’s home village (and where his step-grandmother lives), which is in the far western part of the country, on the edge of Lake Victoria. Roughly equidistant between these two points is the capital city of Nairobi. Why would they go all the way to Mombasa to deliver a baby?
Limited number of hospitals to choose from?
This hospital having a reputation for being the better one?
Babies have a habit of asserting themselves at inopportune moments. Perhaps Mombasa is where they happened to be when the birth process began.
There was probably a dearth of hospitals then in Kenya. I could certainly see them wanting a hospital birth rather than a village birth in case of any problems. That might have been reason enough for them to journey to Mombasa.
Because if you were already married, and yet your new 18 year old plaything wife wanted to see your country, would you take her to your village, or to the opposite side of the country, knowing she would never run into your real wife there while at the supermarket. Probably Mombasa had a nice beach.
Well how thought provoking since every 18 year old American wants to give birth in a 3rd world village.
Your observation goes to plausibility but vicissitudes of travel may have put them in Mombasa when he was born. I don't think we have any knowledge yet of where they may have been travelling to or from bracketing this purported interlude in Kenya.
On the way to the airport and didn't quite make it?