By Victor Mboya
Kenya’s general election is less than seven weeks away, and photos and videos about the activities of political candidates are increasingly being posted on social media.
An image of people queuing around campaign vehicles has been circulated on Facebook with one social media user claiming that the image showed people queueing for money in Kisii, a county in the west of Kenya. “In kisii,people were asked to que for the Kemsa stolen billions to attend Raila’s kisii Rally….Kula kwa Kitendawili,kura kwa William Ruto,” the user wrote.
We checked if the photo was actually taken in Kisii.
A Google reverse image search brought up results that suggested the photo was taken in Kakamega County and not Kisii County. One tweet stated that the image had been taken in the village of Kambiri, in Kakamega County.
Roof matches hotel
We located the village of Kambiri using Google Maps and Google Street View to examine the main street. We came across two buildings similar to the ones in the photo shared on Facebook, and in the background was a hill that also matched the one in the photo.
On the lower left of the photo there are some green and grey corrugated roofing sheets. They match the roof of the hotel opposite the two buildings across the road. The photo of people lining up was likely taken from the hotel balcony. The photo of people queueing was taken from Kambiri village in Kakamega, not Kisii.
