Kenya: Ignore Fake Graphics Claiming Kenya's Anti-Graft Agency Recovered Ksh56 Million From Governor Ndeti's Home

8 November 2024
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Dancan Bwire

Ignore fake graphics claiming Kenya's anti-graft agency recovered KSh56 million from governor Ndeti's home

IN SHORT: Two graphics posted on social media claim that Kenya's anti-corruption agency has seized at least KSh56 million (about US$430,000), a car and a power generator believed to be proceeds of crime from the home of governor Wavinya Ndeti. But the graphics are fake.

Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has seized millions of Kenyan shillings, a luxury car and a power generator from the home of Machakos county governor Wavinya Ndeti. That's according to two graphics doing the rounds on Facebook.

"EACC seizes a luxurious Lexus car, a power generator, and Ksh. 56.3M in cash from Wavinya Ndeti's home in Athi River, all linked to proceeds of corruption," reads the first graphic.

The second graphic says: "EACC recovers KSh.56M believed to be proceeds of crime at Wavinya Ndeti's Kinanie residence, a high-end Lexus car, and a power generator also confisticated."

The first graphic shows the logo and branding of Citizen Digital, the online news platform of Royal Media Services, one of Kenya's leading media companies. The second graphic features the logo of the Star Digital, the online platform of Kenyan newspaper the Star.

Machakos is a county that borders the Kenyan capital Nairobi to the east.

The EACC is a government agency tasked with fighting corruption, economic crime and unethical behaviour.

The two graphics appeared to be linked to an earlier claim on social media that Ndeti and her son had been detained in the UK for money laundering. A claim she has denied.

But are the graphics legit? We checked.

Fake graphics

Corruption allegations involving a sitting governor are sensitive and would have been picked up by the mainstream media. But we found no such reports from credible news outlets.

The two news sites often post their graphics on their verified social media accounts. Africa Check searched Citizen Digital and the Star's Facebook pages for the graphic and came up empty.

The suspicious graphic with the Citizen Digital logo shows the date in an unusual format. It displays it as "SATURDAY, 26TH OCT 2024" instead of "SATURDAY, 26TH OCTOBER 2024".

We contacted Citizen TV to find out if they had published this graphic, but they said it was fake.

On 26 October, the Star posted the graphic in question with the word "fake" printed on it.

"This post is not associated with us in any way and should be treated as FAKE," it cautioned.

Both graphics are fake and should be ignored.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

Tagged:
Copyright © 2024 Africa Check. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.