HOAX: This screenshot of a Twitter account posting as Women Rep. Gladys Wanga is doctored
The legislator has distanced herself from the screenshot through her official Twitter account.
A screenshot from a Twitter account using the name and image of Homa Bay county’s women representative, Gladys Wanga, posted on Facebook is FAKE.
The screenshot claims that Ms Wanga has threatened to decamp from her sponsoring party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), citing intimidation from party insiders.
In the post, the politician, who has served the county since clinching the seat during the 2017 general election on an ODM ticket, threatens to join “other parties”.
However, research by PesaCheck shows the screenshot is not from the legislator’s official Twitter account, as Ms Wanga did not post such a tweet on November 23, as the screenshot indicates.
Additionally, the MP’s legitimate Twitter account does not have a full stop between ‘Hon’ and her first name.
Ms Wanga also flagged the screenshot as false through her official Twitter account on November 23, the same day the fake post was published.
PesaCheck has looked into a screenshot from a Twitter account using the name and image of Homa Bay’s women representative, Gladys Wanga, and posted on Facebook and finds that it is FAKE.
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 James Okong’o and edited by PesaCheck deputy editor Cathy Wamaitha. It 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.
