Video of Kenyan president speaking about flood response measures was miscaptioned

Published on November 29, 2023 at 12:29
2 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

With dozens of people killed, roads and homes washed away and hundreds of families displaced by floods in Kenya, the government has come under fire from critics for not doing enough to address the disaster. Emergency relief funds have meanwhile been the subject of sparring between the national government and counties. Amid the crisis, a video has been shared online with claims that it shows President William Ruto rebuking his deputy Rigathi Gachagua by suggesting he was responsible for the misuse of disaster funds. However, the clip has been miscaptioned: in the footage, Ruto does not castigate Gachagua.

The video was published on Facebook on November 25, 2023, and has been shared more than 70 times.

The post’s text, partly written in Swahili, translates to: “Ask Gachagua where he took the El Nino mitigation funds…”

It continues, in English: “Angry william ruto exposes his dp (deputy president) days after council of governors led by anne waiguru exposed him (sic).”

Screenshot showing the miscaptioned video, taken on November 27, 2023

The video shows Ruto at a press conference flanked by Kenya’s Chairperson of the Council of Governors (COG) Anne Waiguru and Chief of Defense Forces General Francis Ogolla.

Flood emergency

In October, Ruto said that his country would not experience the effects of the El Nino weather phenomenon, only heavy rainfall that would “not be destructive” (archived here).

However, heavy rains linked to El Nino have since affected much of Kenya, causing overflowing rivers, floods, and landslides that have resulted in more than 100 deaths and widespread infrastructural damage. This has left major roads impassable, especially in the northern and coastal regions of the country, hampering the supply of goods such as food and medicine (archived here).

Governors have criticised Gachagua’s November 22 declaration that counties would not receive emergency funding and should reallocate money from within their budgets. They also accused the national treasury of being behind on its regular monthly disbursements to Kenya’s 47 counties (archived here).

Ruto pledged action

AFP Fact Check watched the entire video shared on social media, which is eight minutes and 55 seconds long. At no point in this footage does Ruto chide Gachagua over emergency response funds, as claimed.

In the clip, shot at State House Nairobi, Ruto announced that the government had created a National Disaster Operation Centre – a body mandated to respond to the deadly flooding.

Gachagua was not present at the event, and Ruto only mentioned him briefly at the 7’36” mark.

“My deputy has been consulting with different stakeholders in the last three to four weeks…” Ruto said.

Through a Google keyword search, we found a longer version of the press conference footage on the Kenya Digital News YouTube channel. Ruto does not rebuke his deputy in this version, either.

On November 25, Ruto chaired a disaster response emergency meeting at State House Nairobi (archived here). The event was attended by several cabinet secretaries, top security officials, and Waiguru, among others.

In the meeting, Ruto pledged action to tackle the deadly disaster (archived here).

Kenya and its Horn of Africa neighbours Somalia and Ethiopia are battling flash floods caused by torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern.

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