Back to Africa Check

Did opposition-affiliated politician Junet Mohamed admit they lost Kenya’s presidential election and cast doubt on the effectiveness of nationwide protests? No, quote fabricated

IN SHORT: A quote attributed to Kenyan politician Junet Mohamed is doing the rounds on Facebook, claiming Mohamed has admitted that the Azimio coalition lost the elections and he doesn’t believe the nationwide protests will get them to State House. But this quote is fabricated. 

A graphic with a quote attributed to Kenyan politician Junet Mohamed is circulating on Facebook.

False_JunetMohamed

The quote reads: “The truth is, we lost the elections, that is why I'm finding it hard to trust that demonstrations will get us to Statehouse. We need a different strategy if we are to win in 2027.”

State House is the official residence of the country’s president.

Mohamed is the house minority whip in the national assembly and member of parliament for Suna East constituency. He is also a member of the Orange Democratic Movement, which is part of Kenya’s Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition

The quote was posted on Facebook on 23 July 2023, a day after three-day nationwide protests called by Azimio coalition leader Raila Odinga against the high cost of living and tax hikes. 

Odinga lost the 9 August 2022 election to president William Ruto. But he rejected the results and said Ruto's government was illegitimate.

Mohamed has been conspicuously absent during Azimio coalition meetings and rallies, raising questions on whether he has defected from Odinga’s camp.

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

But did Mohamed actually say this about the elections and nationwide demonstrations? We checked.

Quote is fabricated

On 24 July 2023, Mohamed posted the graphic, with the words “Fake News” stamped on it, on his Twitter page (the platform Twitter was rebranded to “X” on the same day). 

The quote is fabricated and should be ignored.

 

Republish our content for free

We believe that everyone needs the facts.

You can republish the text of this article free of charge, both online and in print. However, we ask that you pay attention to these simple guidelines. In a nutshell:

1. Do not include images, as in most cases we do not own the copyright.

2. Please do not edit the article.

3. Make sure you credit "Africa Check" in the byline and don't forget to mention that the article was originally published on africacheck.org.

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.