How Kenya played a role in the triumph of ‘Trumpism’ in America

Kenya has played a role in the rise of Donald Trump as the Republican party presidential nominee. Trump’s foray into American politics started in earnest in 2008 as the voice of Birtherism, the movement that questioned Barack Obama’s American citizenship because his father was Kenyan. His otherwise fruitless efforts to find Obama’s “real” birth certificate gained him notoriety and credibility on the extreme right of American politics. Eight years later he would launch his own presidential run under the mantra, “Make America Great Again,” which insinuated that the Black presidency had tarnished America’s perceived white greatness.

This is not the first time Kenya has fuelled the presidential ambitions of a Republican candidate. The rise of Sarah Palin followed her public blessings by Reverend Timothy Muthee in a Wasila Church in Alaska at which he asked Jesus to pave her way in politics and rain millions into her pockets. Palin subsequently became John McCain’s running mate but they lost the presidential bid to Obama in 2008. But Palin’s fortunes were transformed.