The African Union has not announced plans to impeach Kenya’s president

“Breaking News AU leaders plan to impeach President William Ruto amid frequent protests,” reads a post published on X on July 7, 2025.

Image

Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 9, 2025

The accompanying graphic bears the branding of local news outlet “Kenyans.co.ke” and features an image of several African leaders, including former AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, ex-Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and other leaders of member states, together with a smaller inset photo of Ruto shaking hands with opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The graphic also includes a faint “Mastardcesh” watermark, which is the name of the account that published it, indicating it was the source of the claim in question.

The replies under the post suggest users believed the claim to be true.

One user asked: “Please do. How can we support?”

“This will be a very progressive movement for the African people at least this shows we have a working system for africans that are concerted with the ppl (sic),” wrote another.

The claim was also published on Facebook here and here.

However, the graphic in question is fake, and the AU has not announced plans to impeach Ruto.

Fabricated graphic

The digital card in question does not appear on the official social media pages for “Kenyans.co.ke”, where such news reports are typically published.

AFP Fact Check contacted the news outlet’s social media manager Adongo Kyalo, who rejected the graphic.

“This is not from us,” he said, adding that users should “check our social media pages on the quoted dates to confirm the authenticity of the graphics”.

We also found no credible source of evidence on the AU announcing plans to impeach Ruto, following recent protests in Kenya.

While the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, an organ of the AU, expressed concern over the recent events in Kenya, the continental body does not have the power to impeach the president of a member state (archived here and here).

A sitting Kenyan president can only be impeached by parliament, as stipulated in Article 145 of the constitution (archived here).  

Saba Saba demos

On July 7, 1990, Kenyans took to the streets to fight for multi-party democracy, in what became known as “Saba Saba”, which is Swahili for “Seven Seven” (archived here).

At the time, Kenya was under the autocratic rule of former president Daniel arap Moi and the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, which outlawed opposition parties.

The historic protests turned violent, resulting in multiple deaths and more than 1,000 arrests.

Thirty-five years later, the 2025 commemoration of Saba Saba shares many similarities with the earlier movement, with nationwide protests leading to an economic shutdown and a violent police response that left at least 31 dead and saw over 500 arrested (archived here and here).

The July 7 events took place just days after similarly violent demonstrations marked the anniversary of last year’s finance bill protests, which culminated in a breach of parliament (archived here).

Ruto has since warned against attempts to “overthrow” the government through “unconstitutional means” (archived here).