A photo of Kenyan deputy president William Ruto reading from a brown book with the words “HOLY BIBLE” upside down on the cover has been circulating on Facebook in February 2021.
“Have you wondered why William Samoei Ruto reads the Bible upside down?” one user asks.
Another says the photo shows that Ruto quotes “non-existing biblical verses... because he reads his bible upside down”.
But was Ruto really snapped reading from an upside-down Bible? We checked.
Photo from 2019 – and altered
Using a Google reverse image search, we found the photo in a March 2020 news article on the website Tuko. And here Ruto is holding the Bible the right way up.
The photo was posted on Ruto’s Facebook page on 10 November 2019 – again, with the book the right way up. The photo of Ruto holding an upside-down Bible has been doctored.
Africa Check recently reported on another doctored photo that seemed to show Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga reading an upside-down Bible.
Republish our content for free
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 guideAfrica 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