By Bonface Onsongo

The photo is of Wakarusa town in the United States.

This photo posted on Twitter allegedly showing a maize plantation in Rift Valley Kenya is FALSE.

The photo was backed by a text suggesting that the maize plantation was destroyed by subsidized fertilizer from the government.

“Ndugu zangu kutoka Rift valley ile subsidized fertilizer kumbe haiwezi shikilia mahindi?Tukiwa maandamano mlisema mko shamba (My brothers from the Rift Valley, you mean the subsidized fertilizer can’t hold maize? When we were protesting, you said you were in the field) Who is laughing now?Karma is a bitch,” reads the tweet.

To confirm if the photo was taken in Rift Valley Kenya, Mtaani Radio’s fact-checking desk performed a Google reverse image search and established that the original photo is of a plantation in Wakarusa in the United States of America.

The original photo was published in an article dated 15 September 2020. The article reported that farmers across Iowa were dealing with the aftermath of a rare wind storm that destroyed their farms. The photo was credited to the Associated Press.

The photo was also published here and here.

Mtaani Radio looked into a photo posted on Twitter allegedly showing a maize plantation in Rift Valley Kenya and found it to be FALSE.

This fact-check was published by Mtaani Radio with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.