A 20-year-old Kenyan mother has made headlines around the world after naming her newborn twins Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

Millicent Owuor gave birth to twin boys at the Siaya District Hospital in Nyanza province, Western Kenya, the local newspaper The Standard reported.

Speaking to the daily the young mother said she took this decision because it would help her "remember the historic US elections for a long time, both the winner and the loser."

Siaya is the home district of Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., who was born in the village of Nyang'oma Kogelo in 1936.

International agencies report that several babies born at the nearby hospital have already been named after Obama, but only one, however, has a twin brother named Mitt Romney.