A recent image shared on social media, purportedly from Citizen Digital, reported on the United Democratic Party (UDP) officials disputing Senator Edwin Sifuna's alleged takeover of the party. The article, dated 1 October 2026, claimed that UDP officials questioned Sifuna's ties to the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) under Article 14 of the Political Parties Act. However, a thorough examination revealed that the article was altered.
The original article, dated 24 September 2026, had a different title: "Sifuna to be unveiled as UDP presidential aspirant in October- Natembeya." The image used in the altered article was similar to the one used in the authentic article, but the heading and date stamp were changed. An Error Level Analysis (ELA) by FotoForensics detected alterations around the heading and date/time stamp.
PesaCheck, a fact-checking initiative, investigated the article and contacted Royal Media Services digital sub-editor Fridah Naliaka, who confirmed that Citizen Digital did not publish the altered article. The authentic article was published by the same author and had a similar timestamp, but the changes made to the altered article were significant.
The altered article's style and formatting were inconsistent with Citizen Digital's typical publishing style. Authentic Citizen Digital headlines usually capitalize only the first word and proper nouns, whereas the altered article randomly capitalized words such as "officials" and "reject." These inconsistencies raised red flags about the article's authenticity.
A Google reverse image search using the photo in the altered article led PesaCheck to the authentic Citizen Digital article dated 24 September 2026. The altered article appeared to have been manipulated from this original article, with changes made to the heading and date stamp.
PesaCheck's findings were part of an ongoing series of fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms. The initiative partners with Facebook and similar platforms to help sort fact from fiction and provide the public with deeper insight into posts they see in their social media feeds.
The fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Rodgers Omondi and edited by senior copy editor Mary Mutisya. PesaCheck is East Africa's first public finance fact-checking initiative, co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and incubated by Code for Africa.
Key points
- The article in question was altered from an authentic Citizen Digital article dated 24 September 2026.
- The alterations included changing the heading and date stamp.
- PesaCheck confirmed that Citizen Digital did not publish the altered article.
