By Naomi Wanjiku
An X (formerly Twitter) post claiming to show an image of Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua allegedly masquerading as an elephant keeper to get a handshake from King Charles III is FALSE.
The photo, also shared here, features King Charles III, Queen Camilla, and Angela Sheldrick from The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on the left. On the right, three men in green coats and cream hats stand beside an elephant. One of them, facing down, bears a resemblance to DP Gachagua.
To confirm the man’s identity in the photo, we conducted a reverse image search. We located the original photo shared by the British High Commission in Kenya on 1 November 2023.
The British High Commission shared this image with three others depicting King Charles III and Queen Camilla during their visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, where they interacted with and fed the elephants.
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust also shared similar images. Among them were more photos featuring the man resembling Gachagua.
In one of these, the man in the claim faces the camera, confirming it is not the deputy president. Furthermore, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust provided a list of attendees during King Charles III and Queen Camilla’s visit, and Gachagua was not mentioned.
On 1 November 2023, DP Gachagua chaired a Cabinet Committee meeting at his Official Residence in Karen, Nairobi. Gachagua met King Charles III and Queen Camilla on 2 November 2023 at Mtongwe Naval Base in Mombasa.
Gachagua was abroad on official duty when the King and Queen arrived on 30 October 2023 and returned to the country on 31 October 2023.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla commenced their four-day state visit to Kenya on 30 October 2023. They spent the initial two days in Nairobi and then traveled to the Coast region on Thursday, 2 November 2023.
PesaCheck has looked into an X post claiming to show Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua allegedly masquerading as an elephant keeper to get a handshake from King Charles III and found it to be FALSE.
This fact check was published by Piga Firimbi with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
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