<strong>Kenyan Elderly Man Falsely Claimed as Former East African President</strong>

While Sudan is considered one of the poorest countries in East Africa, a photo of an older man was posted by a Facebook user who claimed to be the former leader of its country when he was out of power. This post has been shared and reacted to enthusiastically recently.

This is about our investigation of this claim.

Social Media Claim

On November 21, 2022, one of the Facebook users posted a screenshot photo of an older man. The same user above connected and claimed that the older man was a current state of the former East African (Sudan) president after he stepped down from power in 2018. Social media users have shared the post many times, along with various expressions and reactions.

The following is a snippet image captured from the Facebook user's post above that reads, “The destiny of the person is unpredictable.”

Facebook Post | Archived Link

Fact Check

Fact Crescendo Cambodia started reviewing the photos and claims above through Google Reverse Image Search, leading us to find the following facts.

This photo with the same format and shape was found and posted by a Twitter user named “Roncliffe Odit” on March 19, 2019. Roncliffe Odit was widely known as a reporter for the BBC. In his article in English, he stated it was the result of the “Turkana Drought, Kenya Drought.”

Twitter Post | Archived Link

The same goes for The Observer news website, published on May 6, 2019, which was written in English as “Social media users claimed that the man on the left was a prisoner of Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir for 24 years. It turns out, that’s not true”.

The Observer Link | Archived Link

The AFP verified and reviewed the above claim on May 07, 2019. It was stated in its article that the view of an older man with a thin body is not that of a former leader of Africa. The older man is a Kenyan victim suffering from drought in Turkana, taken by BBC Reporter Roncliffe Odit.

AFP Link | Archived Link

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You may find the details of this fact-check in Khmer language here as well.

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo Cambodia finds that the photos and statements of the above Facebook users are false. This photo shows an old Kenyan man suffering from a drought in Turkana, Kenya. This was taken by Roncliffe Odit, a BBC reporter, in 2019.