A news article circulating on social media, purportedly from Kenyans.co.ke, claims that former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is seeking sympathy after failing. However, PesaCheck, a fact-checking initiative, has confirmed that the article is fake. The article in question features an image of Gachagua speaking at a past event, but a thorough investigation by PesaCheck revealed several red flags indicating its authenticity.
PesaCheck conducted a keyword search on the Kenyans.co.ke website but was unable to find the article under investigation. Furthermore, the article does not appear among those published under the byline "Maxwell Amunga", the author credited in the fabricated article. On 17 September 2026, Amunga published an article about two accidents in Kisii and Machakos at 7:45 a.m., which is the only article published by him on that day.
The fabricated article exhibits several characteristics that are inconsistent with Kenyans.co.ke's typical publishing style. The headline is written in all caps, whereas Kenyans.co.ke usually capitalizes the first letter of each word, except for prepositions. Additionally, the article lacks a publication date, month, or year, only indicating the day of the week it was published. The featured image also lacks a caption and source.
Legitimate Kenyans.co.ke articles typically have the first paragraph in bold, but the fabricated article does not. PesaCheck reached out to Brian Muuo, the head of digital strategy and campaigns at Kenyans.co.ke, who confirmed via WhatsApp that the article under scrutiny was indeed "fake". This verification process was part of PesaCheck's efforts to fact-check content marked as potential misinformation on social media platforms.
PesaCheck's fact-checking initiative is part of a larger collaboration with Facebook and other social media platforms to help sort fact from fiction. By partnering with third-party fact-checking organizations like PesaCheck, the public gains deeper insight and context into posts they see in their social media feeds. PesaCheck's work involves verifying the accuracy of media reportage and public pronouncements about numbers that shape our world.
The fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah. PesaCheck is East Africa's first public finance fact-checking initiative, co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organizations. The organization seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape the government's delivery of Sustainable Development Goals public services.
Key points
- The article claiming former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua is seeking sympathy is fake.
- PesaCheck verified the article's authenticity through a thorough investigation.
- The fabricated article exhibits several red flags, including an all-caps headline and lack of publication date.
