The video is from February 2021.
This video on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that Deputy President (DP) Rigathi Gachagua said Members of Parliament (MPs) were bribed to pass the 2024 Finance Bill is FALSE.
The clip depicts DP Gachagua addressing a gathering, during which he makes Kiswahili remarks that translate to: “They spoke and said the president should be told that if he wants them to pass, they want a bribe of two million shillings, and the president agreed. Is that corruption or not?”
The video was accompanied by a post stating: “A truthful man Rigathi Gachagua ameamua kuchoma shule na certificates zote ndani (has decided to burn the school with all the certificates inside). Amesema (He said) MPs were paid Sh 2 million each by Ruto to vote yes on the finance bill 2024!”
The video was shared over a month after Parliament passed the controversial 2024 Finance Bill, amid claims legislators were bribed to support it. President William Ruto, however, declined to sign the Bill.
But is the video from 2024?
Google, TinEye, Yandex, and Bing reverse image searches on keyframes from the video did not yield credible results.
However, a keyword search on YouTube led us to a similar video published on 9 February 2021, which predates the 2024 Finance Bill.
In the video, Gachagua addressed the Building Bridges Initiative Bill, in which he claimed that Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) were bribed to support and pass the proposed legislation when it was tabled in the county assemblies.
Using the information from the video above, PesaCheck performed a refined YouTube search and established that Standard Digital also published a similar video in February 2021.
On 29 January 2021, then President Uhuru Kenyatta, while meeting MCAs from the Mt Kenya region, said he would push for the county legislators to get a KSh2 million car grant.
PesaCheck examined a video shared on X claiming that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said MPs were bribed to pass the 2024 Finance Bill and found it to be FALSE.
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.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Rodgers Omondi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
