IN SHORT: In this viral graphic, Kenyan senator Enoch Wambua urges the Kamba community to support president William Ruto instead of impeached deputy president Rigathi Gachagua. But the graphic is fake.
Kenya’s former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua is untrustworthy, and the Kamba community prefers president William Ruto over him. That's according to a graphic circulating on Facebook that seemingly quotes Kenyan senator Enoch Wambua.
The graphic reads: “We smell betrayal from Rigathi Gachagua, our next option now is for the Kamba people to back William Ruto.”
It includes NTV Kenya’s logo and SMS number, suggesting that the Kenyan media house published it.
Wambua is the senator for Kitui county, located east of the capital, Nairobi. It is one of three counties in Kenya dominated by the Kamba community. The others are Makueni and Machakos counties.
Opposition politician Kalonzo Musyoka, who leads the Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM) party, is widely seen as the community’s political kingpin.
Musyoka has been keen to forge a new political alliance to take on Ruto in the 2027 general elections. He has expressed a willingness to work with several politicians, including Gachagua, who was impeached in October 2024 after falling out with Ruto.
Musyoka embraced Gachagua after his impeachment, and the two even resolved to work together.
Gachagua is from the Mount Kenya region. When used in a political context in Kenya, the region refers to areas around central Kenya traditionally inhabited by the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru communities. Gachagua is from the Kikuyu community and has sought to present himself as the leader and defender of the Mount Kenya region.
Kenyans largely vote along ethnic lines and, as such, ethnicity is an important factor in the country’s politics.
But did Wambua say the Kamba community should back Ruto? We checked.
Fake graphic
NTV Kenya often posts its graphics on its verified social media accounts, including Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). But we couldn’t find the suspicious graphic on these accounts.
We compared the graphic to a genuine one from NTV Kenya and noticed clear differences.
Its layout significantly differs from that of a genuine one. For instance, it is missing a date, quotation marks and the word “QUOTE” at the top left corner. It also has a different font. These are clues that this is a fabricated graphic.
On 27 February 2025, the WDM party labelled the graphic’s contents as “fake news”.
The graphic is fake. It is not from NTV Kenya, and there is no evidence that Wambua made the remarks.
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