False: This Image Does Not Show Recce Squad Officers At DP William Ruto’s Residence

An image circulating online purporting to show elite General Service Unit (GSU) officers from the Recce Squad at Deputy President William Ruto’s residence is fake.

The image shared by Twitter user Josephat Mulinge alleges that the officers were at Ruto’s residence ahead of the announcement of the Presidential results by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) on Monday, August 15, 2022.

“The elite recce squad and the presidential escort team man the DP’s residence ahead of the final declaration. These guys are shrewd enough to strategically keep all corners at vigil. Notice their standing positions,” the user captioned the image.

A reverse image search on Google shows that the photo has been online as early as 2019 and has previously been published by several online outlets.

A contextualized copy of the image could not be traced online, although it has been used by several blogs and news outlets in the past.

Recce Squad is a special force unit of the GSU. Their headquarters are located in Ruiru. They protect Very Important Personnel (VIP) and are trained in both hand combat and counter-terrorism.

Their training is conducted in Kenya and abroad in countries such as the United Kingdom, Israel and America.

They are famous for conducting raids at the Garissa University attack and Westgate Mall in Nairobi.

This fact-check was produced by BUSINESS TODAY with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.