Old false claim resurfaces: Kenyan government not planning to implant microchips in newborn babies
IN SHORT: A 2023 news report claiming Kenya's digital ID programme would implant microchips in newborns has resurfaced online. The report spliced together unrelated clips of Kenyan president William Ruto and US billionaire Bill Gates to suggest sinister intentions, but there is no truth to it.
Disclosure: The Gates Foundation is one of Africa Check's partners, providing 16% of our income in 2024.
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A video making the rounds on Facebook claims that the Kenyan government will start implanting microchips in newborn babies instead of issuing paper birth certificates.
The video begins with podcaster Jesse Bean saying: "Kenya is trying to do what now? I read this in a book once, and it did not turn out too well."
It then cuts to journalist Yvonne Katsande in what appears to be a TV news broadcast, saying: "Let me put it blatantly to you, the programme targets the birth of new babies, so once you have your baby, you no longer get a paper birth certificate but you get one that is somehow implanted somewhere on somebody's body, think about that but have a listen to this."
Katsande is a Zimbabwean journalist living in South Africa.
From there, the video shows Kenyan president William Ruto, who says: "The digital ID that has been a big problem to us for very long time is now on a testing mode for the next two months. I have been assured by all the stakeholders led by the ministries concerned that by December, we will be able to launch digital ID where every Kenyan don't have to carry any paper, plastic, or otherwise as an ID, they should be able to be identified digitally."
It ends with a clip of US billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates saying: "We are taking things that are genetically modified organisms and we are injecting them into little kids' arms."
The video draws on long-running conspiracy theories that link digital identification systems, government technology projects and figures like Gates to sinister agendas.
Over the years, multiple claims have circulated globally about microchips being implanted in humans - often alleged to be hidden in vaccines, identification documents, or birth registration systems - particularly during debates over biometric identification and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gates, in particular, has been at the centre of false narratives suggesting he intends to use health or digital programmes to track populations. The video reinforces fears about government overreach and population control.
It has been posted here and here.
But is there any truth to it? We checked.
Old news report from untrustworthy source
The clip featuring Katsande shows the logo "LN24". The "LN24 International News Station" describes itself as having a "divine strategy to saturate the nations with truth". Katsande is listed on its website as one of its anchors, and her Instagram page also links to it.
We searched the internet for the phrase "Bill Gates Pushes Digital ID for Newborns in Kenya", the same phrase at the bottom of the Katsande clip, and found a video of the LN24 broadcast that Katsande posted on her Instagram account in November 2023.
In the broadcast that she posted, Katsane starts: "The Gates Foundation is continuing its global push to support its so-called government-backed digital ID programmes. And this time, setting its eyes on Kenya, where it will advise the government on that country's maisha namba digital ID initiative that is currently under development."
She then makes the same claim in the circulating video clip, about the Kenyan government's plans to implant chips in newborns. The broadcast also includes the video clips of Ruto and Gates.
Out-of-context clips of Ruto and Gates
A Google reverse image search revealed that Ruto made the remarks about the digital identity document (ID) system during the launch of a smartphone assembly plant in Machakos county, Kenya, on 30 October 2023.
At that event, Ruto said: "The digital ID, which has been a major problem to us for a very long time, is now in testing mode for the next two months. I have been assured by all the stakeholders and the ministries concerned that by December, we will be able to launch digital IDs ..."
The digital ID, commonly referred to as the maisha digital card or maisha namba, was undergoing a pilot phase before being rolled out to the public in November 2023.
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Ruto's comments were about modernising Kenya's ID system, not implanting microchips, hiding birth certificates inside bodies, or any form of bodily tracking.
The LN24 report also uses an out-of-context snippet of Gates speaking. The original footage is from a 2015 interview in Brussels, Belgium. In it, Gates discussed the use of genetically modified organisms and vaccines to address malnutrition and disease in developing countries. Gates explained how innovations in biotechnology, such as fortified crops or vaccines delivered through injections, could help children's health outcomes.
He was discussing health and nutrition interventions, not Kenya's digital IDs, implants, or microchipping.
The circulating video is from an LN24 broadcast from 2023, to which a few seconds of podcaster Jesse Bean's reaction to the supposed "news" has been added. The claim that the Kenyan government plans to implant microchips in newborn babies, with the help of the Gates Foundation, was false in 2023 and remains so.
