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No, this image is not of Kenya’s Raila Odinga statue in South Africa

A Facebook user shared an image of what he claimed showed the newly erected statue of the leader of Kenya’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party in South Africa.

“South Africa erects a statue of Raila Odinga. To signify respect in common for Raila Odinga and Nelson Mandela,” the caption reads.

Odinga was prime minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013 and is also the African Union high representative for infrastructure development.

Data from CrowdTangle, Facebook’s public insights tool, shows the image has been posted over 60 times, attracting thousands of reactions. 

Has Odinga been honoured in this way? 



Clues the image is photoshopped


Behind the status is the word “NDELA” that suggests it might be an altered image of the statue of South Africa’s anti-apartheid activist and first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela.

Africa Check did a reverse image search of the image on Google and found dozens of images of Mandela’s statue at the Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg.

We used the keywords “Nelson Mandela statue at Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg” and were able to find the exact image used in the post.

It has been captioned: “Statue of Nelson Mandela at Nelson Mandela Square, Johannesburg, South Africa. April 26, 2011.”

According to a book Best of South Africa, the 6 metre bronze statue was officially unveiled on 31 March 2004 at what was then Sandton Square, now Nelson Mandela Square.

Odinga has not been honoured with a statue at the square. – Dancan Bwire




 

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