A Twitter post claiming to show Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, in military attire alongside four gun-wielding men is DOCTORED.

The four men in matching military gear have their faces covered by plaid scarfs, colloquially known as arafats in the photo. DP Ruto appears to be holding pieces of paper, most visible to the camera reading: “Fruits for Sale from Turkey”.

The social media account owner captions the image, “This man has a very dark side which at times is reflected when he talks or those around him. I alwys sence dectatorship in him [sic].”

A similar image has also been shared on Twitter, as seen here.

Despite the photo being shared on social media, a reverse image search on Tineye shows Ruto has nothing to do with the original image.

A further search on Google’s reverse image search reveals that the image was used in an article published on the Council on Foreign Relations website. According to the article, the image shows the military spokesman for Al-Shabaab issuing a statement south of Mogadishu and Feisal Omar of Reuters is credited.

A further search on Google using the phrase ‘military spokesman for Al-Shabab issues a statement south of Mogadishu Feisal Omar/Reuters’ leads to an article by Reuters dubbed ‘Somalia’s al shabaab vows huge blast in Kenya’.

In the article, the image showing five men in military gear and faces covered in arafat scarfs, one in the foreground holding papers while four are behind him holding up guns, has been used.

The image caption reads; “Al Shabaab’s military spokesman Sheik Abdul Asis Abu Muscab issues a statement south of capital Mogadishu October 19, 2011”.

PesaCheck has looked into a Twitter post claiming to show Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto in military attire accompanied by four other men in matching military gear with their faces covered by plaid arafat scarfs and finds it has been ALTERED.

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 Cynthia Kanyali and edited by PesaCheck chief copy 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