The photos were taken on 13 October 2023, a day after Ruto graced the Turkana cultural festival.
Syndicated By PesaCheck
This Facebook post with photos supposedly of Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya leaders joining President William Ruto for the 2023 Turkana cultural festival is PARTLY FALSE.
The images show a group of Kenyan opposition-allied leaders led by Martha Karua walking away from what appears to be a flight hangar.
“Azimio leaders led by Martha Karua have arrived at Kalokol Airport to join President Dr. William Samoei Ruto for the Turkana cultural festival (Tobong’u Lore.) Gideon Moi not attending,” reads the post.
The 2023 Turkana cultural festival was held in Lodwar from 12 to 14 October.
But is the post authentic?
We performed Google reverse image searches on the images and established that they were originally shared by Azimio TV, the opposition coalition’s communication platform, on 13 October 2023.
George Wajackoyah, one of the leaders in the photos, shared a similar image and indicated that it was taken on 13 October 2023 at Wilson Airport, Nairobi.
We searched for Wilson Airport on Google Maps and found a photo with a similar background to the image under investigation. This confirms that the opposition leaders were photographed at Wilson, not Kalokol Airport.
Photos shared on the verified ODM party Facebook page show the leaders arriving in Lodwar, Turkana.
The same post features the images of the leaders at Wilson Airport. A comparison of the images at Kalokol and Wilson Airport shows a visibly distinct background.
President William Ruto landed in Turkana on 11 October 2023 and attended the cultural festival on 12 October 2023.
On 13 October 2023, Ruto had engagements in Athi River, Machakos County, and State House, Nairobi.
The Azimio la Umoja leaders attended the Turkana cultural festival on 13 October 2023, a day after the president officially opened it.
The opposition leaders joining Ruto for the festival would have made headlines in the country, however, a Google search did not yield any credible story on the claim.
PesaCheck examined a Facebook post with photos supposedly of Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya leaders joining President William Ruto for the 2023 Turkana cultural festival and found it PARTLY FALSE.
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 Rodgers Omondi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
