An image of a Nzoia Sugar FC player shared on social media on 14th December 2021 claiming that he had been awarded a packet of sugar as Player of the Match is misleading.
The photo was tweeted and also picked by a blog which reported the negative reaction by Kenyans online. The blog reported that Nzoia Sugar player Levis Barasa who joined the club this season, scored a hat-trick to inspire the team to a 3-1 victory against Kariobangi Sharks in a league match at Sudi Stadium in Bungoma. This was its first win of the season.
The blog reported that after scoring a hat-trick and being named the best player in the match on 11th Saturday December in the Kenya Premier League, Levis Barasa was awarded a packet of sugar.
One twitter user accompanied the photo with the caption: “In Kenya if you’re man of the match they will award you 2kgs of sugar. What a shame to the Kenya Football federation. This is completely unacceptable. If this is how Kenya (Africa) treats talent, let’s not talk about the future of our youths. Shame!”
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A fact-check on the photo, however, showed that the caption is misleading. A Google reverse search shows the photo was taken during the unveiling of the player in October.
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post on 16th December, sports journalist Cedrick Siambi also clarified that the photo of the player was taken when he was unveiled at the club back in October, while the sugar he is holding was not a prize from the previous game. “It’s part of product promotion, as he’s advertising the product of the club’s sponsor, Nzoia Sugar Company,” he says.
Also, no media house reported about such news and even a Google search doesn’t yield positive results.
[This story was produced by Business Today in partnership with Code for Africa’s iLAB data journalism programme, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie ]
