The recording was created by piecing together different snippets of Ruto’s speech.
Syndicated by Pesacheck
This TikTok video purporting to be of President William Ruto telling Kenyans that the cost of living would not go down has been ALTERED.
The video begins with Ruto urging the audience to stop making noise. Thereafter, the President says that the price of food cannot go down. The video ends with Ruto saying that he will make life difficult.
“Maneno ya kupigiana makelele makelele, muache. Mnanielewa? Mnakuja kupigia nani kelele hapa? Bei ya chakula haiwezi pungua. Tuambiane ukweli. Nitawakalia ngumu. [This issue of making noise at each other, you should stop. Do you understand me? Who are you coming to make noise at here? The price of food cannot go down. Let us tell each other the truth. I will make it hard for you],” President Ruto says in the clip.
A video reverse search using InVid & WeVerify led us to the original video of Ruto launching the “Bodaboda Care” at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi. Using that information, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and found the entire video on the State House Kenya YouTube channel. The two videos were published on 26 June 2023.
Although the President made all those sentiments in the video we are fact-checking, the words are at different points of the recording. Different clips were cut from different points of the video and doctored to make the video we are debunking.
In the part the Head of State said he will make life hard, the reference was to people frustrating the implementation of the government housing project.
“It is also a right kwa katiba yetu ya Kenya kwa serikali kupanga vile wananchi wataishi in decent housing na hio kazi, mimi nitakazana nayo. Nitafanya bidii na hawa watu wananijaribu nitawakalia ngumu [It is also a right in our Kenyan constitution for the government to plan how the citizens will live in decent housing and I will take that task head on. I will work hard and those people who are testing me, I will make it hard for them],” President Ruto says at minute 1:38:31.
At minute 1:39:06, Ruto talks of plans to reduce the cost of living before he addresses the opposition and tells them that even if they demonstrate by putting sufurias (cooking pans) on the head, the cost of food cannot go down.
At 1:41:15, the President tells the bodaboda riders to stop complaining and taking political sides, emphasising that his interest is sorting out the bodaboda sector so that people can earn a living from it.
The video circulated at a time when the opposition had threatened to hold nationwide protests against the Finance Bill 2023. Now signed into law, the legislation introduced new taxes. The opposition demonstrated against the law, reasoning that it increased the cost of living.
PesaCheck has looked into a TikTok video purporting to be of President William Ruto telling Kenyans that the cost of living would not go down and found 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 into 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 senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
