• Harris was born and raised in Oakland, California where her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast-cancer scientist.
• Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University emeritus professor of economics, who emigrated from British Jamaica in 1961.
Reports circulating on social media alleging that California Senator Kamala Harris has Kenyan roots are false.
The reports widely shared in WhatsApp forums and Twitter indicated that Senator Harris is a Kenyan descendant with Luhya origin.
While some argued her parents come from Kakamega County, others said originally her parents hailed from Busia’s Butula area.
The debate was sparked after Joe Biden, who is the Presidential Candidate for the Democratic party named Kamala as his running mate ahead of the US election slated for November.
“A Kenyan descendant makes a second sojourn at White House after Obama. She last visited Kenya in 2010 during the last push for our new constitution. Her mother Lusabeti, read Elizabeth Naliaka, comes from Kingandole village, in Bukhalalire,” read a series of conversations in a WhatsApp forum.
Another Twitter user claimed that Kamala is a Bukusu whose name was Americanised from the original Khamala meaning the ‘finisher’.
No, she’s Bukusu. Her first name Kamala was Americanized from the Bukusu original Khamala, which means the “Finisher”
— Patrick Wafula Wanyama (@Patwwafula) August 11, 2020
The Star’s fact-check desk moved in to provide clarity on the misinformation.
Harris is an American politician and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from California since 2017.
The 55-year-old is a member of the Democratic Party.
She is the first African American and the first Asian American to be chosen as the running mate of a major party's presidential candidate.
Harris was born and raised in Oakland, California where her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a breast-cancer scientist who had emigrated from Tamil Nadu, India in 1960 to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology at UC Berkeley.
Her father, Donald Harris, is a Stanford University emeritus professor of economics, who emigrated from British Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study in economics at UC Berkeley
Like Barack Obama, a mixed-race heritage has allowed Harris to connect across identities and reach multiple audiences and voting blocs.
She ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2020 election, briefly becoming a front runner before ending her campaign on December 3, 2019, citing a lack of funds to continue.
The Luhya nation's exercabated with thoughts that Kamala Harris is a Luhya nominated as Presidential Running mate in the forth coming US elections. Someone needs to pinch them hard from their slumber....telling them that Kamala is not Khamala and that she is not Luhya.
— OlenjaBen (@Benjamin_Olenja) August 13, 2020
Her nomination as the running mate thus makes her the third female US vice presidential nominee of a major party, after Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin.