SATIRE: Image of Charlene Ruto Selling Smokies While at Daystar University

By Peris Gachahi 

The original image is of a smokie vendor featured by Nation Africa in 2020.

This Facebook post with an image purportedly of Charlene Ruto selling smoked sausages (smokies) during her time at Daystar University is SATIRICAL.

The post reads: “Charlene Ruto back then when she was selling smokie pasua to earn an extra shilling during her time at Daystar University while her Father was the Deputy President of Kenya.”

Charlene Ruto, Kenya’s President William Ruto’s daughter, has been a topic of discussion since she started visiting different county assemblies, meetings governors and running different initiatives at the same time. This has earned her the moniker “Quickmart Ivanka”.

On 7 December 2022, a video of the First Daughter surfaced online in which she is heard saying that she sold smokies during her time at Daystar University, from where she graduated in 2015. At the time, Ruto was the Deputy President of Kenya.

“I was in Daystar University, and smokie kachumbari [a tomato salad] was the only thing that was selling. And he (William Ruto) really encouraged me in that small business I was doing,” she is heard saying.

A section of the audience in the video is heard protesting, saying: “That is a lie. The daughter of the Deputy President?”

A Google reverse search for the image in question, however, shows that the image in the claim was doctored.

The original image was featured in an article by Nation Africa dated 31 July 2020 with the headline, “New rules out for smokies vending”.

According to the image caption, the woman featured was Damaris Ndinda, a smokie vendor in Shauri Moyo estate.

PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post with an image showing Charlene Ruto selling smoked sausages during her time at Daystar University and finds it to be SATIRICAL.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

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