IN SHORT: Controversial Kenyan lawyer Miguna Miguna has denied lashing out at the president through the cabinet secretary on Twitter. The altered screenshot of a tweet in his name should be ignored.
“It’s so embarrassing that Moses Kuria, a CS of trade can utter such toxic words on a public platform and yet he expects Kenyans to take him serious … Mr Ruto you should consider reshuffling your cabinet,” reads a screenshot of what appears to be a tweet written by Dr Miguna Miguna, circulating on Facebook.
Miguna is a well-known controversial political commentator and lawyer. Moses Kuria is a politician and Kenya’s cabinet secretary for investments, trade and industry.
In June 2023, Kuria publicly criticised and threatened media house Nation Media Group shortly after it published an exposé about unlawful tax exemptions on oil imports that could have cost Kenyans KSh10 billion (about US$71.2 million).
The post has been shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But did Miguna really say this about the controversial trade minister? We checked.
‘Fake! These are not my tweets’
“FAKE! FAKE! These are not my Tweets! Please avoid making fake Tweets in my name. I am capable of Tweeting for myself!!!” reads a post on Dr Miguna’s Twitter profile.
The post includes the purported screenshot.
Africa Check also identified a couple of red flags revealing that the tweet in the screenshot was doctored. It does not show the number of times the tweet has been viewed, which has been a Twitter feature since January 2023.
The screenshot also says “quote tweets” instead of “quotes” which is the usual tweet wording.
We compared the doctored tweet with an authentic post from Miguna’s Twitter profile. This made it clear the screenshot circulating on social media is fake and should be ignored.
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