“Vote for Ruto, I am tired,” reads a screenshot of what seems to be a tweet by veteran Kenyan politician Raila Odinga.
The screenshot has been circulating on Facebook since late October 202 – posted here, here and here.
Odinga, 76, is leader of Kenya’s opposition Orange Democratic Movement political party. William Ruto, 54, is the country’s deputy president.
The two are political rivals, and leading contenders for Kenya’s presidency in the country’s upcoming 2022 general election.
But did Odinga really tweet this? We checked.
Fabricated tweet
There is a hint that the tweet might be fake, created with an image editing app.
In a real tweet, the time is usually given in full, but in this tweet the time is written as “19hrs”.
We could not find the tweet when we searched for it on Twitter, and Odinga posted two tweets on 31 August 2021.
One of the tweets was after he met members of the Kenya Copyright Board and the other after a meeting with members of the Somali Business Community.
The opposition leader has not said Kenyans should vote for Ruto.
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Further Reading
Kenyan president William Ruto sparred with journalists over his policies. Did he get his facts right?
Ahead of his government’s eagerly anticipated first annual budget, Ruto made a number of claims in a sit-down with journalists.
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