No evidence that Kenyan legislator Oscar Sudi criticised Kenyan president William Ruto for sacking his cabinet - ignore fake X post
IN SHORT: In a screenshot making the rounds on social media, Kenyan lawmaker Oscar Sudi appears to criticise Kenyan president William Ruto for firing almost his entire cabinet. But we found no evidence that the poorly written tweet came from Sudi.
A screenshot of a poorly written tweet allegedly by Kenyan lawmaker Oscar Sudi is doing the rounds on Facebook. In it, Sudi appears to criticise Kenyan president William Ruto for firing almost his entire cabinet.
The screenshot, dated 15 July 2024, reads: "No way @WilliamsRuto can wrote people a jobs and remove them due to pressure from genz. You should be interdependent on your own decision you maked."
Sudi represents the Kapseret constituency in the national assembly and is a prominent Ruto ally.
Users who posted the screenshot mocked the lawmaker for his "inability" to communicate using proper grammar, and even questioned his academic qualifications.
Sudi was previously accused of forging his academic certificates and making a false declaration to Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to be allowed to contest the 2013 general election. That year, candidates for the national assembly were required to provide proof of academic qualifications. But the court acquitted him of forgery.
The screenshot came just days after Ruto sacked almost all his cabinet secretaries in the wake of deadly anti-government protests that began on 18 June 2024.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The protests, largely led by young people in Kenya, were sparked by the unpopular 2024 Finance Bill, which included controversial tax hike proposals.
The protesters are calling for better governance and Ruto's resignation.
But does the screenshot show a tweet from Sudi's X (formerly Twitter) account? We checked.
No evidence
The first clue that the screenshot is fabricated is the presence of a blue tick verification mark. Sudi's official X account, with over 412,000 followers, is not verified.
As a close political ally of Ruto, these sentiments would likely have provoked reactions from Kenyans and probably found their way into the local news. But there were no credible reports of the criticism.
We searched for the post on X and came up empty. Similarly, we searched for the post on Sudi's X account on 15 July, but could not find it.
The poorly written post criticising Ruto for sacking his cabinet after pressure from young Kenyans is fake.
