IN SHORT: Following the former presidential hopeful’s announcement he would hold rallies in support of electoral commissioners who rejected the election results which saw him lose, reports on social media claimed Raila Odinga’s security detail was withdrawn. But there’s no evidence for this.
A post doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter in Kenya claims that the security detail assigned to Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has been withdrawn.
“Raila Odinga's security withdrawn … Karma is real,” the posts read. They have been posted by multiple users on the two platforms here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
They were mostly published on 29 November 2022, just days after Odinga said he would hold mega political rallies across the country to protest the removal of four electoral commissioners who rejected the 2022 presidential election results.
The four commissioners – vice chair Juliana Cherera, Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit and Justus Nyang’aya – rejected the 9 August presidential election results which declared Kenya’s president William Ruto the winner of the presidential race.
They claimed the final phase of vote-counting had been “opaque”.
Odinga, who was Ruto’s main rival, contested the election results in court but Ruto’s win was upheld.
Ruto suspended the commissioners and appointed a tribunal to investigate the commissioners, with a view to removing them from office.
Cherera, Nyang’aya and Wanderi quit to avoid the tribunal. Masit did not resign and is facing the tribunal at time of writing.
Odinga, a former Kenyan prime minister, is entitled to armed security as part of his retirement perks. But was this withdrawn?
We checked.
‘Rubbish,’ says Odinga’s office
Africa Check contacted Kenyan police spokesperson Dr Resila Onyango, who said Odinga's security had not been withdrawn.
A spokesperson of Odinga’s office also told Africa Check that the reports were “rubbish”.
We also found no reports in the mainstream Kenyan media of anything like it.
There’s no credible evidence that the ex-prime minister’s security has been taken away from him.
Republish our content for free
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 guideAfrica 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