ALTERED: This image isn’t of Rigathi Gachagua

The image has been doctored by adding the face of the impeached deputy president.

This photo on Facebook purported to be that of  the Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya, Rigathi Gachagua, is ALTERED.

The photo was posted on October 10, 2024 and captioned, “Riggy G 😭😭😭”.

Riggy G is the nickname that the deputy president acquired in July 2022, during the presidential campaigns.

Shared two days after Gachagua was impeached by the National Assembly, the image creates an impression that this is the DP’s new way of life following his impeachment. 

Gachagua was impeached  by the Senate on 17 October, 2024 and has since filed a petition at the High Court to suspend the impeachment motion. 

A reverse search of the image on Google led to the original image which is of a man indeed sorting vegetables while seated at the lawn but it is not the deputy president. 

The original image was manipulated to add Gachagua’s face . The image was uploaded on January 2, 2024.

Furthermore, upon a closer observation, one can easily notice that the head and neck in the image are disjointed, making the neck seem bent while the face appears to be upright in posture. These point at image alteration.

NTV Kenya also featured the original photo on its The Trend show on 26 January 2024 and published it on its X (formerly Twitter) account and Facebook page. 

Lastly, PesaCheck also debunked this image on 31 January 2024 and found it to be altered.

Maudhui House looked into a photo on Facebook, supposedly of Kenyan Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and found it to be ALTERED.

This fact-check was published by Maudhui House with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.