Kenya: Old Video and Quote Used to Falsely Claim Influential Kenyan MP Ndindi Nyoro Backs Deputy President

Old video and quote used to falsely claim influential Kenyan MP Ndindi Nyoro backs deputy president

IN SHORT: A video and a quote is circulating on social media in Kenya, with the claim it shows prominent lawmaker Ndindi Nyoro praising the country’s deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua. But this is misleading – the video is from 2020 and Nyoro was addressing then deputy president William Ruto, now president of Kenya.

Kenya’s succession politics have gained momentum in 2024. President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua lead an alliance that won the presidential election in 2022.

But in May 2024, local media reported that the two had become political rivals, a claim that the government denied even as talk of Gachagua’s impeachment intensified.

In this context, a video of and a quote attributed to an influential ruling party politician, Ndindi Nyoro, have been making the rounds online since mid-September.

Nyoro is member of parliament for the Kiharu constituency in Murang’a county. He is a key ally of Ruto’s and a prominent member of the ruling party, the United Democratic Alliance.

Murang’a county is part of the Mount Kenya region, an important voting bloc inhabited mainly by the Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities. In the 2022 elections, most voters from this region supported the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition.

In the video posted on Tiktok, Nyoro says: “Tukimalizia naona wakora yote Nairobi … na wewe Muheshimiwa deputy Rais wewe ni mwanaume, mimi ningetaka kukua kama wewe. Wanaume yote mikora Nairobi wanashikana wanaleta njama ya kupiga wewe lakini hautingiziki.”

This, translated from Kiswahili, means: “As we finish I see all the crooks in Nairobi … deputy president, you are a true man. I aspire to be like you. All the crooks in Nairobi keep plotting against you, but you remain unshaken.”

One Facebook user captioned the video: “Ndindi Nyoro endorses dp Gachagua and warns those planning to impeach him.”

Another user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, captioned the video: “Any one who wants to impeach Gachagua should give him back his votes ~ Ndindi Nyoro.”

On the same day, a graphic circulating on social media attributed the same quote from the video to Nyoro.

“Deputy President, you are a true man. I aspire to be like you. All the crooks in Nairobi keep plotting against you, but you remain unshaken,” reads the quote on a graphic which appears to be from the Kenya Times, a Kenyan news website.

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The graphic was posted with the caption: “Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro pledges his loyalty to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.”

Nyoro has been making political moves that are seen as positioning him as Ruto’s running mate in the 2027 presidential election.

But despite this, did Nyoro come out in support of Gachagua, as the quote and video circulating on social media suggest? We checked.

Misleading video and quote

A reverse image search of keyframes from the video using the InVid search tool shows that Nyoro posted a similar video, showing the same speech, to Facebook on 13 March 2020. He posted it to his verified official Facebook page.

It shows Nyoro talking about the then deputy president, Ruto, who is now the president. Nyoro is not addressing Gachagua.

The video has resurfaced in 2024 and has been misinterpreted as showing the current political tensions between Gachagua and Ruto. But it has been taken out of context.

On 24 September, the Kiharu MP posted the graphic and screenshot of the video on his Facebook page and X account, calling them “fake”.

The quote and video circulating online exploit the Kenyan political environment to create a misleading narrative.

The same video and quote can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

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