This statement shared here, here, and most notably on Twitter and Facebook accounts named Tindi Mwale, who is the Member of Parliament, Butere constituency. It claims to show the final tallying results from Royal Media Services and Standard Media. See screengrab of the fake statement below;
Background
With tallying of Kenya’s Presidential Election ongoing, both sides of the political divide have been claiming victory on social media. However, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission is yet to announce its final results as some form 34B’s are yet to arrive at the Bomas National Tallying Centre for processing. While different agencies, including media organizations, and political parties among other election observers have been counting and announcing votes some of the results publicized on social media have turned out to be fake.
Verification
Piga Firimbi looked into the claim and reached out to Royal Media Services Digital Editor Philip Mwaniki who termed it as “very fake”.
The statement does not appear on any legitimate Royal Media Services platform on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, as it is routine for communication from the media company to be published on their sites for public consumption.
At the same time, Standard Media Group, whose owner is apparently seen to have cosigned the fake statement, recently published a statement on their official Twitter account indicating that tallying is still ongoing and the results they publish cannot be regarded as final.
The Standard Group PLC statement on tallying of election results.#KenyaDecides2022 #KenyaDecides pic.twitter.com/ghxOqyNaIe
— The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) August 13, 2022
Verdict
The document purporting to come from Royal Media Group and Standard Media Group is FAKE.
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