Nation Africa used its verified Facebook page to flag the headline as fake.
Syndicated Story by PesaCheck.
This purported Nation Africa headline stating that Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has hinted at picking Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i as his running mate has been ALTERED.
The headline adds that Odinga expressed frustrations with Mt Kenya leaders. A photo of Odinga and Matiang’i shaking hands at Mwongori Secondary School in Nyamira County on 22 October 2021, is attached just below the headline.
But is the Nation Africa article accurate? We checked.
We searched the headline on the Nation Africa’s website, Twitter account, and Facebook page and did not find such an article. Moreover, Nation Africa has flagged the headline as fake and indicated it has been altered.
“Please be advised that the headline doing rounds on social media is fake. Do not fall for fake news,” Nation Africa cautioned on their official Facebook page.
The publication also attached a screenshot of the correct headline which reads, “Raila Odinga, Fred Matiang’i vow to work together”. An article with a similar headline was also published on the Nation Africa website on 22 October 2021.
There is no mention of Odinga fronting Matiang’i as his running mate in the 2022 general election in the Nation Africa article. Instead, the report states that the two decided to bury the hatchet and foster a good working relationship.
PesaCheck has looked into a Nation Africa headline claiming that former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has hinted he will pick Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i as his running mate and finds it to be 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 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.