False claims circulate about late Kenyan marathon champ’s government-built house

Published on February 28, 2024 at 11:41
4 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

After marathon world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum died in a car crash in February 2024, the Kenyan government built a house for his widow in just days. The rapid construction fuelled the country’s imagination and social media users started to circulate images allegedly showing the completed building. However, some of the photos shared online were unrelated to the late athlete’s new family home.

“The Kelvin Kiptum family house is in its final stage, with international engineers currently working on it,” read one post published on X on February 19, 2024.

Screenshot showing the post sharing the false image, taken on February 26, 2024

The post, which includes an image of an unfinished steel structure, has since been shared more than 250 times and garnered 1,900 likes.

“The late Kevin Kiptum's House is done and ready for handing over,” said another published on Facebook on February 20, 2024, featuring a picture of a cream-coloured house and red roof tiles.

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on February 26, 2024

Meanwhile, this Facebook post with two images of a small bungalow claimed the featured house was built for Kiptum “as ordered by President Ruto” in just three days.

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on February 27, 2024

Kiptum’s death

Kiptum was killed in a car crash along with his coach Gervais Hakizimana on February 11, 2024 (archived here).

The athlete lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree. A pathologist’s report said he died of head injuries. He was 24.

He was buried in his western Kenyan hometown of Chepkorio where the government built a new house for his wife Asenath Cheruto and their two children (archived here).

Kiptum accomplished a lot in his short life (archived here). His feats included setting the men's world record marathon time of two hours, 35 seconds in Chicago in October 2023, beating the previous record-holder, his compatriot Eliud Kipchoge.

Although he only competed in three major marathons, he won all the races, posting three of the seven fastest times in history for the event.

The various photos featured in the posts, however, do not show his family’s new house.

Unrelated photos

Using reverse image searches, AFP Fact Check found the pictures were old and unrelated.

The photo of the skeletal steel building was featured on the website of GNL Frame & Truss, an Australian home construction company, on December 27, 2020 (archived here).

Screenshot showing the original image on the GNL Frame & Truss company website, taken on February 27, 2024

The image of the cream house and red roof was traced to a Facebook post published on January 26, 2024, a few weeks before Kiptum died (archived here).

The admin of the Facebook account told AFP Fact Check that “we shared this image before Kiptum’s death. The house belongs to a client my friends worked for in a different part of rural Western Kenya.”

Screenshot showing the image shared on Facebook in January 2024

AFP Fact Check was unable to trace the image’s origin.

The final image stemmed from a Thai-language housing website called Homenayoo, where it has been online since at least February 2020 (archived here).

Screenshot showing the original photo, taken from the Homenayoo website on February 27, 2024

Genuine pictures

Actual pictures and videos of the Kiptum home were published by Kenya’s Nation Media Group (NMG) here and here on February 23, 2024 (archived here and here).

Kenya's State Department for Housing and Urban Development confirmed to AFP Fact Check that the images and clips published by NMG show the late marathoner's new home.

The department oversaw the construction of the three-bedroomed house from February 16-22, 2024.

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