ALTERED: This purported cover of Kenyan author Ken Walibora’s book is doctored

Moran Publishers denounced the book cover art.

An image shared on Facebook of a book purportedly by the late Kenyan author Ken Walibora is ALTERED.

The post accompanying the image partly in Kiswahili reads: “Ken Walibora was ahead of time, in 2014 he had seen this will happen in 2024, 10 years later, Ken has the ability to see far, mwizi hodari na hadithi nyinginezo, and especially the story of our bad one. He even put a picture (shadow) of the character, rest in peace prof.”

The book, seemingly published by Moran Publishers, bears a Swahili title: “Mwizi Hodari Na hadithi nyinginezo,” which translates to “The skillful thief and other stories.”

The silhouette on the cover shows a man being arrested by a police officer.

Walibora was a Kenyan Kiswahili author who died on 10 April 2020 after reportedly being involved in a road accident. Some of his books, such as Siku Njema (A Good Day) and Damu Nyeusi na Hadithi Nyingine (Black Blood and Other Stories), have been used as secondary school set books to teach literature.

But did Walibora author the purported book under investigation? We checked.

To authenticate the claim, PesaCheck contacted Timothy Muita, the general manager at Moran Publishers, who said the book cover was altered.

“We acknowledge that the cover image for “Mbaya Wetu” has been altered in some online circulation. We want to be clear that the altered image is not the official cover art for the book, published by Moran Publishers. The original cover art, as intended by the author and approved through our editorial process, is as attached,” Muita said.

The original title of the book in Kiswahili, “Mbaya Wetu”, loosely translates to “Our Crook.”

Original cover art of ‘Mbaya Wetu’ Moran Publishers shared with PesaCheck.

“It’s possible an unauthorised edit was made by a reader who obviously picked the image from an article in the Daily Nation of Saturday, 02 April 2022, about the book, by John Mwazemba,” Muita added.

Nation Africa had on 3 April 2022 shared the image on their official Facebook page in a post reading, “Ken Walibora’s ‘Mbaya Wetu’ reveals why we vote in crooks.”

According to Mwazemba’s review of the book, “In the play, the main character, named Matari, is a notorious thief and drunkard. However, society in a way encourages his habit of theft because some people are benefiting from his loot. Matari’s mother also defends and shields him.”

“And the ominous message here is that yes, Matari is a thief. However, we shouldn’t punish him because he is “our thief”. And that’s what ails our politics — groupings whether tribal or other sub-groups. It leads to hyper partisan identities that bring an “us” versus “them” dichotomy that politicians exploit for us to support political leaders with known undesirable traits,” Mwazemba opined.

PesaCheck has looked into an image shared on Facebook of a book purportedly authored by the late Kenyan writer Ken Walibora and finds it to be 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 Peris Gachahi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.

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, visit pesacheck.org.