By Victor Mboya
With 40 days remaining until Kenya’s election, candidates are attracting large crowds to their rallies.
William Ruto, the current Deputy President, and Rigathi Gachagua, who has represented Mathira Constituency in Kenya’s parliament, are running for the presidency and deputy presidency, respectively, under the United Democratic Alliance party. Ruto is also the leader of the Kenya Kwanza coalition of political parties.
Raila Odinga, a former prime minister and Martha Karua, a lawyer and former member of Kenya’s parliament, are the other main frontrunners. They are candidates for president and deputy president respectively, leading the Azimio la Umoja coalition of political parties.
Three days before Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza was scheduled to launch its manifesto, a photo appeared that seemed to affirm his party’s strong political appeal. “Rigathi Gachagua can pull crowds, This is Kisumu,” a Twitter user wrote. Another user wrote: “Kondele in Kisumu is locked. It is so unclassified.”
Kisumu, a county on the shores of Lake Victoria in the west of Kenya, has historically voted strongly for Odinga and is often called his “stronghold”.
The picture shows a large, tightly-packed crowd dressed in green and yellow, which are the colours of the United Democratic Alliance party that Gachagua is representing.
We checked to see if the picture actually showed Gachagua’s suhttps://football256.com/pporters in Kisumu.
A reverse image search led us to the Twitter account Football256, associated with the Ugandan football website of the same name.
On 26 June 2022, the account tweeted the photo as one of three. They showed the Tanzanian football team Young Africans SC, also known as “Yanga”, celebrating their championship win in Tanzania’s commercial hub, Dar es Salaam. The team’s official Twitter account also shared the photo.
The photo does not show Rigathi Gachagua’s supporters in Kisumu.
