IN SHORT: A fake graphic on Facebook falsely quotes Anne Waiguru, the influential governor of Kenya’s Kirinyaga county, in what can be interpreted as a political move against the country’s embattled deputy president. But Citizen TV disowned the graphic.
A graphic circulating on Facebook in Kenya ascribes a quote to Kirinyaga county governor, Anne Waiguru.
“I want our coffee farmers to know that their problems are caused by our senior most brother in government,” it reads.
Kirinyaga county is located 110 kilometres from Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.
The graphic shows a photo of Waiguru and has a similar look to graphics on the Kenyan news site Citizen Digital. It also features a small photo of Kenya’s deputy president Rigathi Gachagua.
Waiguru, who also chairs the council of governors, has been vocal about the issues facing coffee farmers and the need for reform.
Coffee is one of Kenya's main foreign exchange earners, along with tea and horticulture. Gachagua has sought to address the challenges in the coffee sector, particularly targeting cartels. These cartels control the value chain, resulting in low incomes for farmers despite high global demand for Kenyan coffee.
Waiguru is a strong supporter of reforms, especially in counties like hers where coffee farming is a major economic activity.
But Gachagua is under pressure. A motion to impeach him has been tabled in parliament.
The graphic suggests that Waiguru is now blaming the deputy president for challenges in the vital coffee industry. Some media houses have mentioned her as a potential deputy president should Gachagua leave.
Graphics with the same claim, but with visuals similar to those of the popular online news site Kenyans.co.ke, have also been published here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But are these graphics genuine? We checked.
Ignore fake graphics
There is an early red flag. The date is displayed in an unusual format on the Citizen TV graphic in question.
The date reads: “Friday, 20th SEPTEMBER 2024”. Normally, the publication writes each letter in upper case, so in this case it would be “FRIDAY 2OTH SEPTEMBER 2024”.
We contacted Citizen TV to find out if they had published this graphic, but they said that it was fake.
“No, this is not from Citizen TV,” they said.
We also searched for graphic on Kenyans.co.ke but could not find it.
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