Old video of Kenyan doctor used to falsely claim Kenya has withdrawn from the WHO
- Published on February 13, 2025 at 17:42
- 6 min read
- By Peris GACHAHI, AFP Kenya
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Following his return to the presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). A post recently shared on X alleged that Kenya had also pulled out of the international health agency. This is false: the video used in the claim is from 2024 and shows a Kenyan doctor and spreader of health-linked disinformation give a speech on why African countries cannot trust the WHO.
“Kenya withdraws from the WHO,” reads an X post published on February 2, 2025.
In the video, Wahome Ngare, a Kenyan obstetrician-gynaecologist, can be seen giving an address (archived here).
“We cannot afford to trust WHO anymore your excellency, and I’ll just mention a few things that have caused great concern to us,” Ngare says.
He goes on to claim that the WHO's 2014–2015 tetanus eradication program in Kenya used a fertility-regulating vaccine that made women sterile.
Ngare is known for being a vaccine critic (archived here and here).
WHO withdrawals
Trump has signed over 50 executive orders since being sworn in for a second term as president of the United States on January 20, 2025 (archived here and here). Among them is one withdrawing the country from the WHO.
Trump first terminated his country’s relationship with the WHO in 2020 during his first presidential term (archived here). His successor Joe Biden halted this action when he took office in 2021 (archived here).
The United States, a top donor to the WHO, is scheduled to exit the organisation on January 22, 2026 (archived here).
The agency expressed regret over Trump’s decision, noting the longstanding partnership between the organisation and the United States in combating health threats (archived here).
Argentine President Javier Milei -- a close Trump ally -- announced on February 5, 2025, that Argentina would also pull out of the WHO (archived here).
Both Trump and Milei have criticised the global health body for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the claim that Kenya has withdrawn from the WHO is false.
Old and unrelated video
AFP Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video to find the original footage.
This led to a Facebook reel that Ngare shared with another version of the address on May 30, 2024 (archived here).
According to the post, he was in Uganda speaking at the African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty.
Ngare begins his address by mentioning Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who can be seen in the clip.
In the comment section of the Facebook post, Ngare included a Vimeo link to his full speech, which was published by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association (KCDA), of which he is a member (archived here and here). He made no mention of a WHO withdrawal.
Other media outlets reported on the conference (archived here and here).
In response to the recent social media claims, Ngare clarified on January 30, 2025, that although he wished Kenya would withdraw from the WHO, his remarks shared on X were directed at the Ugandan president over the pandemic treaty (archived here and here).
His post includes a link and screenshots of the X claims (archived here).
AFP Fact Check previously debunked misleading claims Ngare made in the 2024 speech here and here.
Keyword searches show that there have been no announcements from Kenyan authorities on pulling out or even considering pulling out of the WHO.
Additionally, Kenya's public service principal secretary Amos Gatheca told local media on January 28, 2025, that Kenya would seek alternatives if the WHO withdrew its funding (archived here).
He made no mention of a withdrawal. Instead, Gatheca acknowledged that the global fund had been key in supporting the country’s health sector.
“Trump announced that he would withdraw America from the WHO. We do not yet know the implications of his decision because we have been partners. It is something we are thinking about now. He just signed the executive order and like you have seen, the world is urging him to stay,” Gatheca said, partly in Swahili.
“America has been helping us the most through that global fund and we are hoping that it does not withdraw and continues helping. Should it exit, we must find alternative ways to sustain ourselves.”
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