A video giving information on the fake arms deal scandal and its involvement in sustaining war in South Sudan has been circulating online. The video has been widely shared on Twitter.
Eh! Is it? Disturbing piece! pic.twitter.com/y1NMwoPTTG
— Codi (@codida) February 24, 2020
Background
Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was arrested in connection with the supply of Sh39 billion worth of military equipment.
The scandal involves the office of the Deputy President and an American citizen based in Poland whose firm, Eco Advanced Technologies LLC, is purported to be the supplier of the equipment.
Echesa has also been charged alongside three others with six counts of making a false document in the Sh39.5 billion fake arms deal. They are also alleged to have obtained Sh11.5 Million from Kozlowski Stanley Bruno by purporting that they will award him with a tender to supply military equipment. The suspects have also been charged with attempting to defraud Sh39 billion from the complainants.
The video alleges DP Ruto’s daughter, Jane Ruto and South Sudanese generals are part of this deal. The narrator gives a trail of the alleged movement of arms from Poland at from a company called Eco Advanced technologies to Kenya and into South Sudan.
Verification
The video has the logo of Polskie Radio but is not available anywhere on their website, social media pages or YouTube channel.
The accompanying images are also very compelling and fit the narrative in the video but where were they sourced? A separation of the keyframes using video verification tool InVID followed by reverse searches of those frames helps in answering this question.
The image of June Ruto is from a tweet from foreign affairs secretary Monica Juma during her visit to Poland in February 2019. It is through this tweet that it was revealed that June Ruto had been appointed the Charge D’Affaires in Warsaw, Poland.
Arrived in Warsaw, Poland this morning to attend the Warsaw Summit which will be looking at security in the Middle East, taking place tomorrow. Was received by June Ruto, Charge D’Affaires. pic.twitter.com/ii3VeGACos
— Dr. Monica Juma (@CSDefence_Kenya) February 13, 2019
The image of the stacks of cash is from the money that was recovered in a 10 million euro cash probe against a former head of Nigeria’s state-run oil firm in February 2017. Claims that the Sudan government will pay Ruto using gold and money stolen during Al Bashir’s reign as president are unfounded.
The image of DP Ruto inspecting a guard of honour with Sudan’s Prime Minister Bakri Hassan is from April 2018 when the DP began a three-day visit to the Republic of Sudan following an invitation from the Sudan government. This is not enough to support claims that the DP has dealings with Sudan generals.
Images of the Kenyan DCI entrance and those reported to be those of Echesa meeting with the Poland company representatives have also been used in video.
The image of the men in red headbands pointing guns used to depict violence is from the Benue Killings in Nigeria, 2018.
While it is true that Jane Ruto is the Deputy Head of Mission to Poland, her involvement in this scandal was verified as false when photoshopped images of her and Echesa in Poland flooded the Internet.
The document showing a Ministry of Defense stamp, an advanced technologies stamp and a finance department stamp dated 10th February 2020 is blurred out on the sides and shows no important details of the deal such as the money involved.
Details of Eco advanced technologies LLC are already in the public domain through news reports.
No details on the exact time, dates and locations are given in the narration.
Verdict
The claims are FALSE as police are yet to conclude investigations.
*We have reached out to Polskie radio and we will update with any details if and when they respond.
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