ALTERED: This video of Moses Kuria being roughed was not captured during the 2024 anti-gov’t protests 

The video was taken in February 2020 during a BBI rally and does not contain the ‘Ruto must go’ chant.

This video on Facebook(archived here) claiming that former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria was roughed up and chased away by angry youths in Nyeri during the burial of Maina Wanjigi is ALTERED.

In the video, Moses Kuria is seen being escorted by security officers as a crowd chants, ‘Ruto must go’ in the background. The former CS can be seen wearing a pink shirt and a black coat. 

The video, however, is of low quality and blurry, which indicates that it might have been edited and the contents altered.

A Keyword search about the incident indicates that the video was taken during a Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) rally in Kitui in February 2020.

BBI was a constitution review initiative fronted by former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Azimio leader Raila Odinga. Kuria was in the then Deputy President William Ruto’s camp, which opposed the initiative. The initiative was later halted by the courts which termed it unconstitutional.

A video shared on Facebook and X by Citizen TV shows the then Gatundu south MP being roughed up by youths and later on being escorted from the event by security officers. The original video appears clearer and runs for 1:06 minutes, while the claim video runs for only 37 seconds. 

The original video has no chants of the ‘Ruto must-go’ slogan, meaning it was edited to include the ‘Ruto Must Go’ chant to substantiate the claims.

Further search for Maina Wanjigi’s burial which took place on 5th July 2024 in Nyeri County shows Mr Kuria wearing a floral shirt and a grey coat, not the pink shirt and black coat as seen in the earlier video. 

In the video shared by NTV on their official Facebook page, the crowd is heard chanting the ‘Ruto Must Go’ slogan. There are, however, no reports of Kuria being roughed up during the funeral.

The ‘Ruto must go’ slogan has rented the airwaves in the past month following protests led by youthful protesters christened Gen Z who have been calling on President William Ruto to resign over what they termed as punitive 2024/2025 Finance Bill. 

Following the protests which led to the death of over 40 people, the President declined assenting the bill and asked the National Assembly to withdraw it altogether. The President also later dismissed members of his cabinet and cut budgetary allocations to various non-essential offices and expenses.

Despite these actions, the Gen Z protesters continue with their criticism of the President, calling for his resignation and the dissolution of Parliament.

However, the video of Kuria under our scrutiny is not related to recent events. After running searches and examining the video claiming former CS Moses Kuria was roughed up by youth in Nyeri in 2024, Lake Region Bulletin established that the ‘Ruto must go’ chant was overlaid over the original video which was taken in February 2020. 

This fact-check was produced by Lake Region Bulletin, under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).