The Kenyan newspaper shared an image of the legitimate cover on its social media page that shows a different lead story.

Syndicated Story PesaCheck.

An image purporting to show the 15 October 2021 front cover edition of Kenya-based publication Taifa Leo is ALTERED.

The cover of the Swahili publication carries a lead story titled “Aisha Tupee Posho Yetu (Aisha Give us our Cut)”. It contains two images; the first one of Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto, with the member of parliament for Malindi constituency, Aisha Jumwa, and the second shows the two mingling with supporters at a political rally.

The text below the images states, “Ma hasila (sic) wa wadi ya Gongoni, eneo Bunge la Magarini Jimbo la Kilifi walilia Aisha awalipe posho Yao ya milioni 1.2 aliyopewa na Ruto awagawie, lakini wanadai Aisha ana njama fiche na hela hio. (Party supporters from Gongoni Ward, Magarini constituency, in Kilifi county beseech Aisha to give them their fair share of the Kshs 1.2 million given to them by DP Ruto, and claim Aisha was secretly planning to dupe them).”The Facebook post accompanying the image castigates the publication for the choice of content. “Of all the serious national issues, Taifa Leo picked this as the headline!” reads the post.

However, the front page shared by Taifa Leo on its Twitter and Facebook pages on the said date is different.

The legitimate 15 October 2021 cover lead story is about the High Court’s ruling on the controversy surrounding the legality of the national Huduma Namba identity system.

Unlike the fake front cover, the publication’s authentic front page carries three images, not two. The main image shows President Uhuru Kenyatta with first Lady Margaret Kenyatta holding up a Huduma card.

The second photo shows Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi signing an endorsement for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI). The third shows Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi and her Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade counterpart, Ababu Namwamba, with other health officials.

There is no image of Ruto or Aisha Jumwa.

Other stories highlighted on the fake front cover are similar to those carried by the legitimate front page of the Taifa Leo.

In a Facebook post on 17 October 2021, Nation Africa, Taifa Leo’s sister publication, disowned the fake front page image.

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 Simon Muli 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.