Ignore video claiming Kenyan president Ruto has appointed former rival Odinga as prime cabinet secretary
IN SHORT: The video claims that William Ruto has appointed Raila Odinga as the new prime cabinet secretary. However, it is misleadingly edited, splicing together unrelated clips to create a false story.
A viral video on TikTok claims that Kenyan president William Ruto has appointed opposition leader Raila Odinga as the new prime cabinet secretary.
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The 37-second clip shows Ruto giving a speech at the State House in Nairobi. It begins mid-sentence with him saying: "The other very important position, and that is the position of the prime cabinet secretary."
It then cuts to a scene of Odinga walking to a podium outside a government office, surrounded by several people.
The president's voice continues: "And I have appointed my brother Raila Odinga into that office. He will chair and coordinate national government legislative agenda across all ministries and state departments in consultations with and for transmission to the party coalition leadership in both the national assembly and the senate."
A "breaking news" banner appears at the bottom of the footage. The video has more than 989,000 views, over 14,000 likes, and over 2,000 shares.
Context and background
Ruto and Odinga were the main opponents in Kenya's 2022 general elections, which Ruto won by a narrow margin. Their political rivalry continued after the elections, with Odinga leading protests sparked mainly by the high cost of living.
Following a series of key political events, including massive youth-led protests against the 2024 Finance Bill, the two began to work more closely. Ruto even appointed key Odinga allies as cabinet ministers and strongly supported Odinga's failed bid for the African Union Commission chair position. Odinga has since cut a political deal with Ruto.
The TikTok video claims that Ruto has appointed Odinga as prime cabinet secretary, a position held by Musalia Mudavadi since September 2022.
Such an announcement would be a significant political move. But is this claim true? We checked.
Video is fake
A closer analysis of the TikTok video shows clear signs of manipulation. The part where Ruto says "Raila Odinga" sounds different from the rest of his speech, suggesting that another audio recording of Ruto saying Odinga's name has been inserted here.
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A keyword search using clues from Ruto's speech, since he's talking about appointing a prime cabinet secretary, leads to this original footage. This was at the State House on 27 September 2022 when Ruto announced his cabinet and appointed Mudavadi as the prime cabinet secretary.
Segments of the original video used to create the fake video are from two to 17 seconds, from 19 to 21 seconds, and from the 1:03 to 1:24 mark.
At the 14-second mark of the fake video, "Musalia Mudavadi" has been replaced with a different audio clip of Ruto saying "Raila Odinga". The video then cuts to another scene showing Odinga walking towards a podium.
A keyword search using clues from this scene, such as the people present and the background, reveals that the clip of Odinga is from a joint press conference with Mudavadi on 21 August 2024 at Mudavadi's office. The part showing Odinga in the TikTok video is taken from the first five seconds of this original footage.
Additionally, no credible evidence or official announcement supports this claim.
The claim that Ruto has appointed Odinga as prime cabinet secretary is false. The video has been manipulated by using unrelated clips and audio segments.
