Post falsely links unrelated Ruto speech to recent Kenya-Tanzania tensions

Published on June 2, 2025 at 14:14
4 min read
By Peris GACHAHI, AFP Kenya

Kenya’s President William Ruto recently apologised to Tanzania after Kenyan activists and politicians who had travelled to show solidarity with Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu after he was charged with treason, were detained and deported. Following these events, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan warned against outsiders meddling in her country’s affairs. A video shared on TikTok claims to show Ruto’s response to Suluhu. But the claim is misleading; the clip is from an earlier address to local leaders regarding Kenya’s economic development, where the Tanzania-Kenya dispute was not mentioned.

“President Ruto responds to Samia Suluhu,” reads the text overlaid on a TikTok post published on May 21, 2025, and shared 6,000 times.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken May 28, 2025

The caption on the post reads: “President William Ruto in State House Nairobi today during his meeting with Ukambani leaders after Samia Suluhu kick out Kenyan activists in Tanzania (sic).”

Ukambani is a region in central Kenya.

“We are a great nation. Let nobody tell you negative things about Kenya. I have so much faith in this nation. I would not know what to do in any other nation,” Ruto says in the clip, partly in Swahili.

He further expresses strong optimism for Kenya’s future, asserting his conviction that the country is destined for global greatness.

Kenya-Tanzania row

The recent diplomatic tensions between Kenya and Tanzania stemmed from the detention and deportation of Kenyan and Ugandan activists who had gone to Tanzania to attend the May 19, 2025, treason trial of opposition leader Lissu.

Among those affected were Kenyan opposition leader and lawyer Martha Karua (archived here).

Activists Boniface Mwangi from Kenya and Uganda’s Agather Atuhaire, who were part of the group, accused Tanzanian authorities of torture during their incommunicado detention, with Atuhaire also alleging sexual assault (archived here).

These grave allegations drew concern from human rights bodies, prompting calls for immediate investigations (archived here and here).

Amid the rights abuse claims, Suluhu warned against foreign interference in Tanzania’s affairs (archived here).

However, the TikTok clip does not show Ruto addressing his Tanzanian counterpart over the recent events.

Unrelated video

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip and confirmed that it shows Ruto speaking during a meeting with Ukambani leaders at State House Nairobi on May 21, 2025.

The clip was published by Kenyan news outlet The Standard and shows Ruto dressed in the same attire, speaking from behind a lectern (archived here).

"This country will change," President William Ruto declared during a meeting with Ukambani leaders today at State House, Nairobi. pic.twitter.com/dbv9r9fABZ
— The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) May 21, 2025

We found a longer version of Ruto’s address published on YouTube by TVL News, a local digital news platform. He did not mention Tanzania or Suluhu (archived here).

According to local media reports on the meeting, Ruto affirmed his government’s commitment to equitable development and resource allocation for the Ukambani region (archived here and here).

He also urged the leaders to encourage their residents to register for the Social Health Authority insurance scheme, highlighted progress in the affordable housing government projects and announced significant development projects in the region.

There were no mentions of Ruto addressing the Tanzania dispute in these reports either.

However, a week later during the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast held in Nairobi, Ruto publicly apologised to Tanzania (archived here).

“To our neighbours from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us,” he said.

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