K24 TV, through their verified Facebook page, flagged the screenshot as fake.
Syndicated Story By PesaCheck.
A screenshot made to appear like it is from K24 TV and doing the rounds on social media claiming that the donkey which Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto rode while at the Coast had died is FAKE.
According to the screenshot, the cause of death of the donkey is not known.
“The donkey which the Deputy President William Ruto rode during his tour of the coast died last night. It is not yet clear the cause of the unfortunate death of the donkey,” the post reads.
We searched for that specific post on K24 TV’s official Facebook page and Twitter account but did not come across anything in that regard. We also searched for the story on K24 TV’s website and did a keyword search on Google to see if any credible news outlet had covered the story of the donkey’s death, but none had published such a story.
Further research pointed us to a post published on K24 TV’s official Facebook page flagging the screenshot in question as fake news.
“Fake news alert!” K24 TV informed their online followers.
The media station also attached the screenshot with a fake news stamp across it.
On 19 October 2021, Ruto caused a stir among Lamu County residents when he visited the county riding a donkey. In a video published by Standard Digital on 20 October 2021, Ruto is seen seated on a donkey accompanied by a crowd wearing United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party t-shirts and loudly chanting his name.
The deputy president visited Lamu County on the final day of his three-day tour of the Coastal region. He was accompanied by several MPs from the region and others from the Mt Kenya region to help him popularise his 2022 presidential bid at the Coast.
PesaCheck has looked into a purported K24 TV screenshot doing rounds on social media claiming that the donkey which Deputy President William Ruto rode while at the Coast had passed on 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.
