An image shared here, here, here, and here on X and Facebook purportedly shows King Charles III posing for a picture with a Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) agent upon his arrival in Kenya. These claims surfaced as the Head of the Commonwealth embarked on his four-day visit to Kenya starting on October 31, 2023.
Background
King Charles III’s visit to Kenya was his first visit to Africa since becoming king after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, 2022. King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla were coronated on May 6, 2023, in Westminster Abbey. The British High Commission in Kenya when announcing the visit stated that it is “To celebrate the warm relationship between the two countries and the strong and dynamic partnership they continue to forge.”
The King visited Uhuru Park in Nairobi, where the Kenyan flag was first hoisted after independence and met young Kenyan creatives, entrepreneurs and leaders across multiple disciplines. The royal visit concluded on November 3, 2023.
Verification
The image was first shared here by an account that identifies as a satirical news website on X on October 31, 2023. The image has, however, been shared here, here and here by other accounts without that context.
Firstly, the image appears to have been taken during the daytime whereas the king arrived during the night according to media reports. “The King and Queen arrived in the country late on Monday night,” Nation reported. The Daily Mail reported that the King and Queen landed at 10PM Kenyan time on Monday, October 30, 2023.
Upon further scrutiny, one can notice that the image appears too smoothed out, an aspect common with AI-generated images. In addition to that some aspects of the image look distorted and abnormal unlike those in actual images. The man standing in the background for instance has shorter arms than usual with one of his arms extending to the floor. This is a typical AI error. See the screen grab below.
Analysis using Hive Moderation, an AI detection software, reveals that the image was generated by Midjourney, an image generation tool. See screen grab below.
Verdict
The image purportedly showing King Charles III with a KRA agent upon his arrival in Kenya is AI-generated.
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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