Disregard fake graphic claiming Kenya's NTV reported that woman denied access to former electoral commission chief
IN SHORT: Kenya's former election commissioner Wafula Chebukati has been the subject of several false claims circulating online. And now media house NTV has distanced itself from a graphic claiming that a woman was barred from contacting Chebukati.
A post on short-form video platform TikTok shows a graphic designed to look like a breaking news alert from private Kenyan broadcaster NTV.
It is dated 26 April 2024 and includes two photos: one of a woman identified as Susan Nekesa and the other of former election commissioner Wafula Chebukati.
The headline on the graphic reads: "Court bars woman from accessing Chebukati." The accompanying text reads: "Court issues temporary restraining order barring Susan Nekesa from accessing Wafula Chebukati."
The graphic includes the NTV logo, suggesting it is from the broadcaster. The post has received over 221,000 views and over 900 likes.
Chebukati is the former chair of Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. He oversaw the 2017 and the 2022 general elections. He faced controversy during his tenure as the opposition coalition accused him of mismanaging the elections, while the winning side hailed him as a hero.
Similar posts can be found here and here.
Africa Check has previously debunked several false claims made about Chebukati.
But was this graphic created and published by NTV? We checked.
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Fake Facebook profile
Africa Check searched for the phrase "Susan Nekesa and Chebukati" to try to determine the graphic's authenticity.
In early May 2024, a Facebook account was created under the name Susan Wekesa. This account posted claims that she had a child with Chebukati and that he had infected her with HIV. This story was not reported by the mainstream media.
Human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, attacks and weakens the body's immune system. It is spread through the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Social media bloggers soon exposed the Facebook account as fake, noting that the images of "Susan Wekesa" and her alleged son were AI-generated and photoshopped. The Facebook account was soon deleted.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, tools use complex computer algorithms to perform some tasks otherwise done by humans, like writing computer code. One of the tasks it's really good at is creating images from scratch based on simple instructions.
Ignore fake graphic
Our search for news articles on this story did not turn up any results from credible sources. The exposure and removal of the fictitious Facebook account strongly suggests that the graphic is fake.
We also looked for the story on NTV's official social media channels and on related sites of the Nation Media Group, the station's parent company, but came up empty.
Instead, NTV Kenya marked the graphic as fake on its social media pages, warning: "Beware of fake news! If it's not on our official social media pages, it's fake."
The story is fake and the claim that NTV Kenya created and shared the graphic is false.
