This Facebook post claiming to show Kenya’s deputy president, William Ruto, in a pro-democracy protest 30 years ago is SATIRICAL.

In the photo, Ruto is accompanied by Kapseret constituency member of parliament, Oscar Sudi and Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro.

“A rare photo of freedom hero William Ruto leading pro-democracy protestors in the fight against imperial presidency, 30 years ago. He’s flanked by University don Oscar Sudi and Head of African Business Ndindi Nyoro,” the Facebook post reads.

However, a scrutiny of the image reveals the people captured in the photo are not the said politicians.

Instead, Google reverse search shows those in the image are former Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara, Siaya Senator James Orengo and ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Although multiparty crusader, the late Charles Rubia, is also identified in the caption, he is not in this picture.

A screenshot of a website article showing the real people in the photo in question. [Source: The Star Kenya]

The four led Kenyans in protests on 7 July 1990, known as the ‘Saba Saba demonstration’. The demonstrators marched on the streets to demand the fulfilment of the promises made by Kenya’s founding fathers when the country achieved independence in 1963 — justice, unity, peace and liberty.

Why did the Facebook user attach the photo to his post? The post is satirical. Sudi has never been a university lecturer, and Nyoro has never been the head of African business.

The Facebook user criticised the remarks that DP Ruto made, applauding the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the validity of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). While at the burial ceremony of Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya’s mother in Mavirivirini village, Kwale County, DP Ruto said that, “we fought for almost 30 years against an imperial presidency”.

“If there was a much more dangerous constitutional change, it was the BBI. Because it was going to roll back all the gains we had. We fought for almost 30 years against an imperial presidency. The BBI was going to install the imperial presidency in a very unprecedented way,” the deputy president said.

The video went viral, and a section of Kenyans started questioning whether DP Ruto was part of the 30-year liberation from the imperial presidency.

PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post claiming to show Deputy President William Ruto in a pro-democracy protest 30 years ago, accompanied by Kapseret constituency member of parliament Oscar Sudi, and Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, and finds it to be SATIRICAL.

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.