By Gathuru John
This post on X features a graphic purporting to be an official digital card from the Kenyan newspaper publisher Daily Nation. The graphic features the headline:
“Sleepless in Kiambu: Cabinet Secretaries reportedly calling each other as reshuffle talk intensifies”
The graphic features photographs of three cabinet secretaries in active service: Lee Kinyanjui (Investments, Trade and Industry), Mutahi Kagwe (Agriculture and Livestock Development) and William Kabogo (Information, Communication and the Digital Economy).
Background
Following Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) candidate Sammy Kamau’s landslide victory over President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate Samuel Muchina in the June 16, 2026, Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election, political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi took to X (formerly Twitter) the following day with a proposal.
In his post, Ngunyi urged President Ruto to dismiss all nine cabinet secretaries from the Kikuyu community, arguing that despite the president’s efforts to win over the community, it had rejected him. He instead called on Ruto to shift his political focus to the Luo and Mulembe (Luhya) communities by replacing the Kikuyu cabinet secretaries with individuals from those two communities.
The President has not responded to this statement by Mutahi Ngunyi, however, Oscar Sudi, Kapseret Constituency member of parliament, opposed the calls to sack the cabinet ministers.
This graphic was circulated just five days after the X post by Mutahi Ngunyi urging the president to sack the cabinet secretaries.
Verification
A review of Daily Nation’s official social media accounts shows no record of this breaking news graphic.
A reverse image search reveals that the photographs used to create the graphic appeared on a Daily Nation article from December 19, 2024, and on TV 47 Kenya’s Facebook post from December 24, 2019. Both the article and the Facebook post were reporting on the nominations of the three cabinet secretaries into President Ruto’s cabinet.
The breaking news graphic is a digitally manipulated composite created to spread political misinformation. The image was extracted from the above posts dating back to December, 2024, and a fabricated “Breaking News” text was layered directly over it using the official logo and color branding of Daily Nation. The graphic deliberately exploits public trust in the Daily Nation to give a completely manufactured narrative the appearance of verified news.
Verdict
The breaking news graphic purporting to be an official digital card from the Daily Nation is FAKE.
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