This image on Twitter of Azimio coalition leader Raila Odinga in police uniform and carrying a gun has been ALTERED.

A tweet accompanying the image reads: “Commander in Chief of Maandamano (protests) Association (sic).”

The image has also been shared here.

The tweet was shared on 12 July 2023 as Odinga led anti-government demonstrations in various parts of the country.

The opposition had planned to hold a rally at Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi but cancelled it, citing a plan, purportedly by the government, to attack the attendees.

The ex-prime minister was not in police attire during the media briefing.

We performed a Google reverse image search to determine the authenticity of the image.

The original image has been shared online, as seen here and here. The picture was taken on 10 July 2023 as Odinga walked to take a matatu (minibus) to the city centre.

In the original image, Odinga is neither in police uniform nor carrying a gun.

PesaCheck has looked into an image on Twitter of Azimio coalition leader Raila Odinga in police uniform and carrying a gun and found it to have been ALTERED.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Harriet Ogayoand edited by PesaCheck Senior Copy Editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting Chief Copy Editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visitpesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.