Back to Africa Check

No, former Kenyan chief justice David Maraga hasn’t defended William Ruto’s electoral win, quote fabricated

A quote attributed to former Kenyan chief justice David Maraga has been widely published on Facebook, with one post attracting 1,100 comments.

According to the posts, published late August 2022, Maraga said: “Dr. William Samoei Ruto won fairly and squarely on the just concluded Presidential Elections and he should be sworn in on 30th of August.”

The quote continues: “I don't know why the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta is still pressurizing the Supreme Court to nullify the Elections in favor of AZIMIO La UMOJA which was defeated in day broadlight.”

“We are very aware that Uhuru Kenyatta still wants to extend his term upto October which is an insult to our Economy. He should let Dr. William Ruto's victory take this Nation forward for the Next 5 Years when Kenyans will be back to ballot,” the quote ends. 

The post includes a photo of Maraga, who was chief justice between October 2016 and January 2021. He was part of the supreme court that in a historical decision nullified the 2017 presidential election where Odinga lost to outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta.

Facebook users posted the quote here, here, here , here and here. The post has also spread widely on Twitter.

Kenyans voted on 9 August 2022. The frontrunners for the presidency were deputy president William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance and Raila Odinga of the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition.

Kenyatta endorsed Odinga for the presidency. 

On 15 August the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Coalition chairperson Wafula Chebukati declared Ruto the president-elect with 7,176,141 votes, edging out Odinga who received 6,942,930 votes.

Odinga has rejected the election results and filed a petition at the supreme court to challenge it. The court will make its ruling on 5 September.

But did Maraga publicly defend Ruto’s win?

MaragaRuto_False

‘Fake reports, please ignore’

Such a statement from the former chief justice would be widely reported by mainstream media organisations. But this was not the case here.

Maraga, through his verified Twitter account, dismissed the reports and urged the public to ignore them.

He posted a screenshot of a similar quote posted on Twitter, stamped “FAKE”.

“This tweet circulating on social media purporting to be authored by me is FAKE, please ignore,” Maraga said.

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

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.