I don’t see where Snopes claimed anything of the sort. They just pointed that no article claiming Obama was Kenyan Born was released by the AP, which is correct. The article was altered in a Kenyan Newspaper, which Snopes acknowledges did exist. That, however, does raise the question as to why the Kenyan Newspaper would claim he was born in Kenya.
This article gives some possible explanations. It tells how foreign papers get syndicated stories. Either that or someone contacted them. After all, who knew of Obama outside of Illinois back then - especially in Kenya. I doubt they were using keyword searches on the name Obama :