A graphic shared on Facebook claims Kenyan legislator Wangui Ngirici has decided not to run for governor in Kirinyaga. She represents Kirinyaga, a county northeast of the capital Nairobi, in the Kenyan national assembly.
“After consulting with my constituents, i have decided to drop my ambition for kirinyaga Gubernatorial seat. I will be running for the mwea parliamentary seat in kirinyaga County via UDA party,” the quote reads, superimposed over a photo of Ngirici.
The graphic is branded with the logo and website address of news outlet Kenyans, as though it were originally published by them. It has been shared on public Facebook groups with a joint membership of over 67,000 members.
Ngirici was a close ally of deputy president William Ruto and has said she would run for Kirinyaga governor in the elections scheduled for 9 August 2022.
But has Ngirici dropped her bid in favour of a parliamentary seat? We checked.
No record of announcement, dismissed by MP
We could find no public record of Ngirici announcing she was dropping out of the governor’s race.
On her verified Facebook page, Ngirici shared the graphic, stamped “fake” and captioned “fake news”.
Kenyans.co.ke has also said the graphic is “fake” and advised its readers to always visit the official website and verified social media pages.
“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. We, therefore, flag it as FAKE,” the outlet posted.
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