Back to Africa Check

Kenyan deputy presidential candidate Gachagua asked supporters to reject women leadership? No, quote fabricated

A graphic circulating on Facebook attributes a controversial quote to Rigathi Gachagua, running mate to presidential candidate William Ruto in Kenya’s August 2022 general elections.

In the quote, Gachagua appears to rally his supporters to reject women leadership.

“Sisi tumekataa uongozi wa wanawake. Wanawake sio agenda Kenya hii,” the quote reads, in Kiswahili.

This translates as: “We have rejected women leadership. Women are not an agenda in Kenya.”

The graphic featuring the quote appears to have been produced by the news website Kenyans.co.ke.

Ruto and Gachagua lead Kenya Kwanza, a coalition of political parties set up ahead of the elections. 

They will face Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga and his would-be deputy Martha Karua, who heads the Narc Kenya party. Odinga and Karua are contesting the elections on the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition ticket.

The graphic has been posted here, here, here, here and here.

But is it legit? We checked.

KenyaQuote_Fake

Graphic fake, quote made up

The graphic can’t be found on the Kenyans.co.ke Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Africa Check asked Brian Muuo, the head of social media at Kenyans.co.ke, about the graphic. He said it was fake.

There is no evidence Gachagua said anything like this, or that any other media house quoted him as saying it.

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.