On 8 January 2022, a day after Kenyan deputy president William Ruto held a rally in Eldoret town in the west of the country, photos of a large crowd were posted on Facebook.
The photos show people dressed in the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party colours, green and yellow.
The Facebook user claimed the photos showed the crowd that attended Ruto’s rally in Eldoret.
The caption to the photos reads: “A sea of humanity at the Eldoret sports club, UDA hustler nation grand rally in Rift valley. Eldoret people came out in large numbers. Ruto is the 5th president!”
Kenyan politicians have been holding campaign rallies ahead of the general election set for August 2022. Ruto is running for president.
Africa Check has already debunked false claims that another photo of large crowds showed the Ruto rally on 8 January. But do these photos of a crowd in UDA colours show his supporters welcoming the deputy president to Eldoret?
Photo old, taken in Tanzania
A reverse image search reveals that one of the photos shared is more than six years old. It was published by BBC on 30 October 2015 and credited to the French news agency Agence France-Presse.
According to BBC, the photo was taken in October 2015 during a political rally in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It was held by Tanzania’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), ahead of the 2015 elections.
Tanzania’s late president John Pombe Magufuli was campaigning on the CCM ticket.
We could find no evidence the photos shared on social media in January 2022 show Ruto’s supporters.
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