By Victor Mboya
Tuesday, 9 August 2022, was election day in Kenya. Throughout the election and vote-counting process, we will continue to check the facts.
Kenyans voted the day after the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Birmingham, England, came to a close.
On 3 August 2022, a Kenyan athlete, Ferdinand Omanyala, won the gold medal in the men’s 100 metres. Soon after a Twitter user posted an image of the track star with the word “Kwanza” added to his running outfit, also known as a “sprint suit”.
The addition of the word Kwanza spelled out the phrase “Kenya Kwanza”, which is the name of the political coalition headed by William Ruto, Kenya’s deputy president, who is contesting the presidency. His main rival is Raila Odinga, a former Prime Minister who heads the Azimio coalition.
A reverse image search showed that the original photo did not show Omanyala with “Kenya Kwanza” on his sprint suit. The photo, which is credited to Kelly Ayodi and has been published in multiple Kenyan media outlets, was taken after Omanyala won his heat on 2 August 2022.
It shows only “Kenya”, the country for which he was competing, printed on his sprint suit. The image is photoshopped.
