Sheikh Ngao on his part reiterated the Muslim community’s support for the BBI (People Daily, January 4, p.8). The expression “on his part” is common in Kenyan journalism. But it is of no value. Remove it and the meaning of the sentence remains the same.
Senator Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu) noted that for the fruits of devolution to be realised fast, governors and their finance officers must be innovative in order to generate more money to undertake meaningful development (People Daily, January 4, p.15). Why “meaningful development”? We don’t have “meaningless development”. So, just say development.
Pope Francis has formally accepted the resignation of Cardinal John Njue as the Archbishop of Nairobi (Citizen Digital, January 4). The Pope cannot “informally” accept a resignation. President “officially” launched, etcetera. These qualifiers are unnecessary.
Njue has stepped down as the head of the Nairobi Diocese [Archdiocese] but he remains a cardinal until the age of 80 (Star, January 5, p.2). Wrong. He will remain a cardinal throughout. The only thing a cardinal aged 80 and above cannot do is to participate in election of a pope.
Sonko challenged his removal from office, claiming due process was violated. He argued he would suffer snots ouster from office (Star, January 5, p.2). What is the meaning of “suffer snots ouster from office”?
Yvonne Waweru announced her resignation on Tuesday via her Facebook, saying that she will seize being a member of the assembly on January 15, 2021 (K24 online). She will cease, not “seize”.
Kondrusiewicz had served as Archbishop of Minsk for 13 years and as president of the Kenya Episcopal Conference from 2006 to 2015 (Standard online, January 5). Wonders. Ever heard of this guy? How did a Belarusian archbishop with an unpronounceable name end up heading the bishops’ conference in Kenya?
Fact-Checking Desk: Weekly Report January 2 – 8, 2021
By Lucy Mwangi
1. An image of The Standard paper’s front page posted on Facebook on January 4, with a cover story claiming that Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto had ’embarrassed an orphan’ was fake. A scrutiny of the first page shows that the main headline had grammatical mistakes and was printed using an alternate textual style from the standard one that the paper uses.
Further scrutiny of the altered image shows that the lead story had been changed yet other stories featured are like those conveyed by the authentic publication. The lead story on the authentic cover, which has been posted on the publication’s verified Facebook account, read: “Backlash after Moi blocked in DP’s turf”.
2. A viral tweet was shared on December 30, 2020, claiming that one Jonathan Kiprono, who is purportedly the Independent Electoral Commission Twitter administrator, was fired after referring to the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) as the “Burning Bridges Initiative”. A look at the official IEBC Twitter handle shows that the commission gave a statement of apology, considering it a “typographical error” and clarifying that “the error doesn’t in any way reflect the position of the commission or its staff”. The screenshot below shows the first post transferred at 11 am, which has since been pulled down.
3. A letter posted on Facebook claiming that Jubilee Party summoned nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura over an offense is fake. In the two-page letter, Senator Mwaura is blamed for being disloyal to the party, undermining its leadership and failing to agree with the party’s code of conduct among other purported concerns.
On January 5, through both its official Twitter and Facebook accounts, Jubilee Party dismissed the claim that it had published the letter with its supposed summons for Mwaura by the party’s disciplinary committee.
