Back to Africa Check

No, Kenyans.co.ke didn’t quote Ford-Kenya leader Wetang’ula complaining of UDA dominance in Kenya Kwanza coalition

A graphic circulating on Facebook since late February 2022 attributes a controversial quote to Kenyan senator Moses Wetang’ula

“It would not be in order for UDA to produce both the presidential candidate and the running mate. Kenya Kwanza is a coalition of equals and the interest of all parties involved must be considered in decision making,” it reads.

The graphic shows a photo of Wetang’ula, and carries the logo and branding of local news site Kenyans.co.ke.

The UDA is the United Democratic Alliance. The party is a member of the Kenya Kwanza – “Kenya first” – coalition, led by deputy president William Ruto. Wetang’ula is the leader of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy - Kenya (Ford-Kenya) party. 

Ruto is running for president in the 9 August elections on the UDA ticket. Kenya Kwanza has had a political headache over the choice of his running mate. 

But did Wetang’ula really complain about both the presidential candidate and his running mate being from the UDA? We checked.

Wetangula_Fake

‘That’s not from us’

Such a statement would be widely reported in Kenya, but we found no news coverage of the quote.

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

“That's not from us. All our quoteboxes are shared on our verified Twitter and Facebook pages,” Robert Ndung’u, the managing director of Kenyans.co.ke, told Africa Check.

On 1 March Ford-Kenya party posted the graphic – stamped “FAKE” – on its Facebook page.

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.