This image (see above and below) has featured severally on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. It shows what appears to be the front page of the Daily Mail, a popular newspaper in the United Kingdom.
The headline on the front page refers to Kenyans as ignorant for invading the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Facebook page.
#KOT, there you have it. “Ignorant and misinformed” Kenyans. @DonaldBKipkorir @WehliyeMohamed @DavidNdii @makaumutua pic.twitter.com/c89vkl4tr9
— (((Khalid H Ali))) (@Khalidhajiali01) April 8, 2021
Background
On April 2, 2021, the IMF approved a 38-month loan support of about USD 2.34 billion for Kenya towards the COVID-19 response and to address the urgent need to reduce debt vulnerabilities.
In a statement by the IMF, “the financing package will support the next phase of the authorities’ COVID-19 response and their plan to reduce debt vulnerabilities while safeguarding resources to protect vulnerable groups”.
In May 2020, Kenya received emergency support of USD 739 million from the IMF in the form of an interest free loan under the Rapid Credit Facility, to help the country recover from the onset economic shock resulting from the pandemic.
This sparked an outrage from Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) under the trending hashtag #StopLoaningKenya, urging the IMF to cancel the disbursement of the loan, citing corruption. The online campaign was accompanied by online petitions driving the same narrative. One managed to gather over 230,000 signatures.
Kenyans out here invading anything IMF. #IMFStopLoaningKenya pic.twitter.com/BgJsFJfx8B
— DEE (@renegade_dee) April 7, 2021
Verification
An image reverse search leads to this tweet that shows both the original front page of the Daily Mail publication and the altered one.
There's desperation in the ikulu.
The real one vs The Photoshop.#IMFStopLoaningKenya #ReleaseKiama#LetKiamaSpeak pic.twitter.com/X4wiAKbtCc— TheNortherner (@alaminkimathi) April 8, 2021
From this tweet featured on this fact check, one of the quoted tweets, by renowned economist David Ndii, counters the claims made by the altered publication with the original image.
Looks like #KOT has really crawled under Kamwana’s skin. https://t.co/YwBJOFgiLN pic.twitter.com/98up0BZeps
— David Ndii (@DavidNdii) April 8, 2021
Using these original images, a second reverse image search shows that the original front page was shared by The Daily Mail on April 5, 2021, on their twitter account.
Additionally, both images show that the newspaper was published on Monday, 5, April 2021.
Using ‘Daily Mail 5th April 2021’ as key words, a result shows that Tomorrow’s Papers had the original front page featured. Tomorrow’s Papers is a site that features front and back pages of UK newspapers.
Verdict
The image of a newspaper headline referring to Kenyans as ignorant is FAKE and was not published by the Daily Mail.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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