Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the President-elect, Mr. Obama, is a son of the soil of this country. Every other country in this continent is celebrating the Obama win. It is only proper and fitting that the country which he originates from should show the same excitement, pomp and colour. This "son of the soil" or "son of the village" thing is how this got started (well that and the fact that Obama never released his original birth certificate).
John Kennedy was a "Son of Ireland." It doesn't mean he was born there. People say these things metaphorically.
The reason he didn't sidestep the birth controversy was that -- at the time -- Obama's birth was not controversial.
Or that Ogego wasn't paying attention to the question.
What they were asking him essentially was whether people were going to visit Obama's ancestral village, whether the government would put up a monument there. He may not even have caught the "birthplace" angle to the question.
Anyway, you have people who believe Obama was born in Mombasa, on the other side of Kenya, citing the ambassador and the "grandmother" as believing that he was born in the village. What's up with that?
There is a
Affidavit of Bishop Ron McRae which is part of the Berg case. The Bishop says pretty much the same thing as the Ambassador.
"Additionally, it is common knowledge throughout both the Christian and Muslim communities in Kenya, that contrary to news media propaganda here in the United States, US Senator Barack Obama is a Muslim and not a Christian, and that he was born in Mombasa, Kenya and not in the State of Hawaii as falsely purported by the Obama campaign for presidency of the United States."
You can impeach McCrae's character. After all, he's just an itinerant preacher. But McCrae has been to Kenya. Still that's another person who said that it is common knowledge in Kenya that Obama was born in Kenya.
Then of course there is
a video of Obama's grandmother saying that Obama is born in in her village in Kenya There is a case to be made that Obama mother didn't mean Obama was born in her town but rather that he is a "son of this village". Or maybe this is like saying "he is a son of the soil". Still its not the same word as used by the men in the Kenyan assembly. If taken alone, she could well be ignored. However, her tale is in keeping with others both high and low. It suggest that Barak was born in Kenya. And that he is an illegal alien.
Once again Barak could stifle this by letting out his birth certificate--but he chooses instead to pay his lawyers to squelch this.