FAKE: This statement purportedly issued by former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo is fabricated
Mr Kabogo has disowned the statement which claims that he conceded defeat in the May 2021 parliamentary by-election.
A statement shared on Facebook, purportedly by the former governor of Kiambu County, William Kabogo, regarding the results of the recent by-election in Juja constituency, is FAKE.
In the fake statement, Mr Kabogo congratulates United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate George Koimbuiri, for winning the May 18, 2021, Juja parliamentary by-election.
“As one who has been honored to serve the people of Kiambu County as the former Governor and previously as a long-serving member of parliament for Juja constituency, I believe that we must now put the divisions of the campaigns behind us and pursue a common goal of uplifting and serving the people of Juja,” reads the statement in part.
The statement further calls on Ms Susan Njeri, who was fielded by the Jubilee Party in the by-election, to unite with Mr Koimburi to pursue the interests of the people of Juja, adding that this will honour her late husband and former MP of the constituency, Francis Waititu.
The Juja parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of Mr Waititu.
However, there is no information about the statement on Mr Kabogo’s official Facebook and Twitter accounts, where he routinely comments on political issues.
In a tweet on May 19, 2021, Mr Kabogo posted a screenshot of the statement and disowned it, calling it fake.
In a report published by a local publication, People Daily, the politician also refuted the claims made in the statement, saying he is not even a member of the Jubilee Party.
PesaCheck has looked into the statement shared on Facebook purportedly by former governor of Kiambu County, William Kabogo, on the results of the recent by-election in Juja constituency, and finds it to be FAKE.
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 news 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 Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by managing editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
