This image claiming to show a report supposedly published by The Maritime Executive indicates that Deputy President William Ruto is allegedly involved in a bribe scandal of $240 million alongside the Maersk shipping company which is headquartered in Denmark.
Nyali Constituency Member of Parliament Mohammed Ali and the Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) organization are also allegedly implicated in the bribe scandal according to the report circulating on Facebook.
Background
As the Kenyan elections slated for August 9, 2022, draw closer, an infodemic appears to be fast-rising, targetted at politicians vying for various positions.
Piga Firimbi has looked into some elections-related misinformation in fact-checks that found a fake video alleged to show chaos after one of Deputy President William Ruto’s rally here, a fake poster purporting to show a blueprint of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Bottom-up approach here, false claims that Wangui Ngirici apparently dropped her ambitions to vie for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat published here, as well as a fake TIFA poll claimed to show that Julius Bitok is the most preferred gubernatorial candidate for Uasin Gishu County published here.
Verification
Besides the glaring grammatical mistake on the Facebook report’s fourth sentence, other red flags point towards this not being a legitimate exposé by The Maritime Executive.
This article is not on The Maritime Executive website. Neither is it mentioned on the media channel’s Twitter and Facebook accounts where they routinely post about their reports. At the same time, no credible local media has reported on this.
Piga Firimbi further reached out to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) who are in the article claimed to have authored the “confidential report” that allegedly found Wiliam Ruto’s connection to the bribe scandal.
In an email communication, ACCC’s Director of Media and Strategic Communications Geesche Jacobsen said that the commission has no connection to the alleged report.
“ACCC does not investigate claims of bribery or corruption per se. It investigates breaches of competition and consumer laws in Australia and regulates national infrastructure services,” Mr Jacobsen indicated on mail, “While the ACCC generally does not comment on ongoing investigations we can say that reports that the ACCC has investigated, or reported on, alleged bribery issues in Kenya are not correct.”
The Maritime Executive news editor Paul Benecki also denounced the report.
“This is fake and defamatory, and it was not created by The Maritime Executive,” he told Piga Firimbi via email.
The fabricated media report using a reputable media brand to push lies is characteristic of similar fake news that Piga Firimbi has previously checked, using media brands such as CNN, BBC, Citizen TV, The Daily Nation, The Star Newspaper to make their information appear legitimate.
Verdict
The Maritime Executive report claiming to reveal a corruption scandal involving Deputy President William Ruto is FAKE.
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