On 14th September 2022, a Twitter user shared an image of Kenya’s State House, Nairobi, with a claim that the government of newly elected President William Ruto had removed the Kenyan flag from it.
The image shows Ruto’s yellow Presidential Standard and the East African Community flag with the caption: “Kenya Kwanza government removes Kenyan flag from statehouse.” This came days after the swearing-in of Dr William Samoei Ruto as the new president.
The ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition won the 9th August presidential election, and President William Ruto was sworn into office on 13th September 2022, taking over the reins of power from President Uhuru Kenyatta.
During the inauguration, Uhuru’s presidential standard (blue with a dove), was lowered and Ruto’s yellow flag – with a wheelbarrow – was raised at Kasarani Stadium where the swearing-in took place, to symbolically signal the change of government. Similarly, Uhuru’s Standard was removed from State House and replaced with Ruto’s.
BusinessToday has looked into the claim that Ruto’s government supposedly removed the Kenyan flag from State House and found it false. We reviewed the State House’s social media handles and discovered that the most recent photograph posted on Facebook and Twitter includes Ruto’s presidential standard, the East African Community flag as well as the Kenyan national flag.
The image shared by the Twitter user does not capture the wider angle that shows the Kenyan flag on the other wing of the State House building.
The photo shows only the left section of State House, Nairobi, and is therefore misleading.
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.
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