This screenshot of a Facebook post claiming to show Gatundu South member of parliament Moses Kuria’s remarks about Deputy President William Ruto being egocentric, is FAKE.

In the screenshot, Kuria calls DP Ruto egocentric for allegedly claiming that he does not need any coalitions and alliances.

“William Ruto recklessly claimed he doesn’t need any coalition or alliance. For a person to utter such statement it shows how egocentric he is. Siasa haitaki makasiriko (Politics does not do well with anger),” the screenshot reads in part.

The Gatundu South legislator further asks in the screenshot whether it was necessary to attend the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party Parliamentary Group meeting.

“I have seen people asking why I didn’t attend the Pg meeting. In the first place was it necessary? My party is CCK not UDA,” the screenshot adds.

However, Kuria has flagged the screenshot as fake.

“To the Fake News society, use intelligence kidogo (use a little intelligence),” Kuria wrote on his Facebook page.

The Gatundu South MP was missing from the Hustler Parliamentary Group Meeting which was hosted at the Karen home of DP Ruto and ‘attended by over 135 MPs’. The Hustler Parliamentary Group is made up of legislators allied to DP Ruto and the UDA Party. According to an article published by The Standard, the meeting was used to discuss the bottom-up economic approach they are fronting for the next general election, how to effectively reach the grassroots, and how to navigate the political environment.

When asked whether Kuria missed the PG meeting because of the differences between the People’s Empowerment Party (PEP) and UDA, Garissa MP Aden Duale declined to give a direct answer.

However, a few moments after Ruto whispered something in his ear, Duale said, “Just before you ask, on PEP, the only member of PEP who is a hustler from the hustler nation is here and is part of our PG meeting”. Juja MP George Koimburi then waved at the camera.

On 23 July 2021, The Star reported that Kuria has been kicked out of PEP, which he initially led, and has started the process of forming his own party. The Star further reported that Kuria has refused to join UDA and has instead gone ahead to form Chama Cha Kazi. However, according to the publication, Kuria is still in support of Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid.

The Office of Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) issued the Chama Cha Kazi with a provisional registration certificate on 2 July 2021. According to the Political Parties Act, 11 of 2011, a provisionally registered party has a maximum of 180 days before their certificate expires. For a provisionally registered party to qualify to be a fully registered party, it must have 1,000 registered voters from more than half of all Kenya’s 47 counties.

PesaCheck has looked into a screenshot of a Facebook post claiming to show Gatundu South member of parliament, Moses Kuria, calling Deputy President William Ruto egocentric and finds it to be FAKE.

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 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 Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck Chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck 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.