With Kenyan elections scheduled for 9 August 2022, pollsters and media houses have been the target of false information which presents some candidates as more popular than others. This potentially harms voters’ ability to make informed choices.
One graphic posted on Facebook appears to show the results of an opinion poll for the governorship race in Uasin Gishu county.
The county is in the former Rift Valley province in the west of the country and has 506,138 registered voters, according to official data.
The region is seen as a stronghold of the Kenya Kwanza coalition, led by deputy president William Ruto. The coalition’s main party is the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
Polls show the coalition is in a tight race with the Azimio la Umoja coalition, whose flag bearer is Raila Odinga, a former prime minister.
“MOST PREFERRED UASIN GISHU GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE,” reads the headline of the graphic. It has also been posted here, and shared to groups with tens of thousands of members, according to Meta’s insights tool, CrowdTangle.
The rankings show UDA candidate Jonathan Bii consistently in the lead during the months of May, June and July.
Independent candidate Zedekiah Kiprop Bundotich is next, but has seemingly lost support in the period. Azimio’s William Kipkemboi Kirwa is the third-place candidate.
The graphic bears the logo of NTV, a mainstream Kenyan TV station.
Africa Check has previously debunked false opinion polls on election races in other counties in Kenya.
Is this such a poll?
Fake poll, fake graphic
On 12 July, NTV Kenya posted the graphic on their official Twitter account, and stamped it “FAKE”.
It wrote: “FAKE NEWS ALERT! Be aware of fake news! If it is not on our official social media pages, it is fake.”
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.
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