FALSE: This image is not related to Kiambaa constituency by-election in Kenya
An image shared on Twitter claiming to show a mammoth crowd of Kenyans who support the ruling Jubilee Party in Kiambaa constituency is FALSE.
The image shows a crowd of people thronging a convoy of vehicles along what appears to be a major street or highway.
The image was shared alongside another one of the ruling Jubilee Party’s candidate in the Kiambaa parliamentary by-election, Kariri Njama.
The post accompanying the images states that Njama enjoys a comfortable lead in the four wards in the constituency’s by-election slated for 15 July 2021.
The post also claims that the rival party, United Democratic Alliance (UDA), is planning to cause chaos to scare away the voters, although it does not provide any evidence.
However, a reverse image search of the photo showing the crowd reveals that it is not related to the political campaigns in Kiambaa.
Among the search results is a tweet by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) — a South African political party that takes a leftist and radical stance. The EFF was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and his allies, in 2013.
The image was shared on the EFF Twitter handle in 2019, alongside a post urging party supporters to turn up during the South African general election which was held in May that year.
Further, results of the by-election — whose vote counting was delayed after chaos erupted at the tallying centre.
Hours later, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared UDA Party’s Wanjiku John Njuguna the duly elected Member of National Assembly for Kiambaa constituency after garnering 21,773 votes. Jubilee Party’s Njama Wainaina Karanja Kariri got 21,263 votes.
PesaCheck has looked into the image claiming to show supporters of the ruling Jubilee Party in Kiambaa Constituency and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck deputy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by managing editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.