A graphic circulating on Facebook quotes Catholic archbishop Anthony Muheria as accusing Kenyans of “normalising” stealing.
“It's unfortunate that Kenyans have normalised theft to an extent of attempting to steal elections. May we ask God to forgive our sins,” the quote reads.
The graphic is branded with the logo of the news website Kenyans.co.ke and dated 13 August 2022.
It was shared just days after Kenyan politicians accused each other of vote rigging in the 9 August presidential elections.
The Kenyan Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission cleared four candidates to run for president.
They were United Democratic Alliance party leader William Ruto, Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga, Roots Party of Kenya candidate George Wajackoyah and Agano party’s Waihiga Mwaure.
The electoral body declared Ruto as the president-elect on 15 August.
The graphic has been shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But did the archbishop make this statement? We checked.
We ‘flag it as fake’, says media house
Africa Check searched for the graphic on Kenyans.co.ke Facebook and Twitter accounts and came up empty.
On 13 August, Kenyan.co.ke posted the graphic on social media, stamped “fake” in red.
“This post did not emanate from our media house. It does not conform to the in-house branding rules and did not go through the multiple approval checks set in place to prevent misreporting,” it wrote on Facebook.
The archbishop also made clear the quote was fake on his personal Facebook page.
There is no evidence Anthony Muheria said this, or that any media house quoted him as saying it.
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