TikTok video misleadingly edited to claim Kenyan politician accused president Ruto of plotting to kill him
IN SHORT: A TikTok video shows Kenyan MP Kimani Ichung'wah apparently accusing president William Ruto of threatening him. But the video has been edited to mislead viewers, and the claim is false.
A TikTok video shows Kenyan politician Kimani Ichung'wah standing atop a car and addressing a crowd. Other political figures are also present, including president William Ruto.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
The text at the top of the video reads: "Breaking News: Ruto want to kill me."
Speaking in Kiswahili, Ichung'wah's remarks roughly translate as: "William Ruto, you threaten me saying I will see you. But I want to tell you, I have seen the Almighty God. I do not wish to see you. I know that when we announced you, you said you would intimidate us. You are threatening my life. You are threatening Ndindi Nyoro. You are threatening Moses Kuria."
The video includes an unrelated caption claiming that the Nyota Fund has been hacked and instructing viewers to dial the provided mobile codes to access the "hacked" money by "accepting Skiza".
"Skiza" refers to Skiza Tunes, a mobile service that lets users set personalised ringback tones. The Nyota Fund is a Kenyan government initiative, funded by the World Bank, aimed at empowering young people through skills development, employment, entrepreneurship and savings.
The video has been viewed over 210,000 times and has more than 3,700 likes.
Context
Ichung'wah is the MP for Kikuyu constituency and the majority leader in Kenya's national assembly. He is a close ally of Ruto and regularly appears alongside him at both official and political events.
Moses Kuria and Ndindi Nyoro are also Kenyan politicians. Nyoro is the MP for Kiharu constituency, while Kuria is a former minister in Ruto's government. All three campaigned strongly for Ruto ahead of the 2022 elections.
But relations between Nyoro and Ruto seem to have cooled, with Nyoro increasingly critical of the government's performance. Kuria was dropped as minister and later appointed as Ruto's adviser. He subsequently resigned his advisory role but said that he remained on friendly terms with the president. Ichung'wah continues to be one of Ruto's closest allies.
The TikTok post suggests that Ichung'wah is now accusing Ruto of trying to kill him and threatening Kuria and Nyoro. But is that true? We checked.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The clip is edited and misleading
The speech shown in the TikTok video is not recent and has been edited to mislead viewers. It closely matches remarks Ichung'wah made during the 2022 campaigns.
A keyword search of Ichung'wah campaign activities from that year leads to the original clip, uploaded on 7 August 2022. The segment used in the TikTok video appears from 1:55 to 2:20 in the original recording.
In the altered clip, the introductory part where Ichung'wah says "William Ruto" has been cut from a different part of the speech and inserted at the beginning, creating the impression that he was directly addressing Ruto.
In reality, the unedited footage shows he was addressing then president Uhuru Kenyatta, not Ruto.
The unrelated text about the Nyota Fund is another red flag. As Africa Check has previously debunked, such captions frequently appear in TikTok videos to grab attention. They often urge viewers to dial codes to "win money", but actually trick those dialling the codes into unknowingly subscribing to paid mobile services.
The video has been misleadingly edited. It repackages a 2022 campaign speech as if it were recent and falsely suggests that Ichung'wah was accusing Ruto of threatening him.
