This archived tweet contains an image of a boy sitting on jerry cans appearing to be crying next to a donkey laying on the ground. The tweet makes reference to Kenya’s deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, and Nandi County Senator, Kiprotich Cherargei, by tagging them, while indicating that the two are “stuck in campaign mode” as “hustlers wither in abject poverty”. The same image was also shared in this archived tweet making reference to the drought in Mandera County.
Background
One of the problems the new administration is grappling with is drought with 11 Counties in the alarm drought stage. Reports indicate that up to 3.5 million Kenyans are facing starvation due to the drought. This happens even as the government strives to alleviate the situation, with President Ruto flagging off relief food to 23 Counties.
Misinformation is usually rife in times of crises. This was evidenced by the sheer volume of COVID-related fake news, some of which Piga Firimbi debunked here. With Kenya facing drought, expectedly cases of drought-related misinformation are rife, for instance the images debunked here.
Verification
Through reverse image search, we established that the image attached to the tweet is from 2017 and was taken in Yemen. In this report, the image shows the same boy standing with the donkey and jerry cans in the background, and a translation of the caption reads: the daily suffering of Yemeni children for water. Piga Firimbi also found the image on Reddit with a caption indicating that this is in Yemen.
While Kenya is indeed suffering pangs of drought and images from the drought-stricken regions may be very similar to the ones shared on social media, a number of them are not from Kenya.
Verdict
The image accompanying the tweet is NOT from Kenya thus MISLEADING.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.
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