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Kenya: No, Kenyan Deputy President’s Digital Strategist Itumbi Not Faking Injuries After Torture – Photo Flipped

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4 years ago

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Dennis Itumbi, blogger and digital strategist for Kenyan deputy president and presidential candidate William Ruto, was abducted and tortured in late December 2021. After being found naked and “alive but badly fractured after six hours of torture”, he was admitted to hospital.

In January 2022, two photos of Itumbi started circulating on Facebook as evidence of a claim that he was faking his injuries.

In the first photo he’s seen in a hospital gown with a walker brace on his right leg and a cast clearly visible on his left leg. His bandaged left arm is in a sling.

The second photo shows him in a shirt and trousers, the brace on his left leg and the trousers covering what seems to be the cast on his right. And this time, his right arm is bandaged.

Meta’s fact-checking system indicates that at least one of the posts was shared more than 560,000 times in just 14 hours.

“Ever since ‘abduction,’ looks like Dennis Itumbi wakes up each day with a different broken leg. In other words, the injury switches from one leg to the other like a light switch,” one caption to the photos reads.

“Lakini itumbi surely amesahau mguu ya kipindiree ilikua gani, UDA minions come collect your blogger amechoma,” reads another in Kiswahili and Sheng, an urban slang that mixes English and Kiswahili. This translates as: “Itumbi has surely forgotten which foot he’d used for the stunt; UDA minions come pick your blundering blogger.”

The UDA is Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance, a political party Itumbi has been drumming up support for ahead of Kenya’s August 2022 elections.

But are the photos evidence that Itumbi’s injuries switched sides, indicating they weren’t real?

Flipping photos horizontally, an old disinformation trick

A Google reverse image search of the first photo reveals that it’s been online since at least 1 January. Kenya’s NTV channel tweeted it in a report on Itumbi’s discharge from hospital.

Dennis Itumbi has been discharged from hospital: Wanjohi Githae, Director of Communications – UDA

video: https://t.co/sxSEOqSwbo pic.twitter.com/oIi9i0ALn5

— NTV Kenya (@ntvkenya) January 1, 2022

The tweet links to a video of Itumbi, in a hospital gown, being supported by two people as he slowly walks down a corridor. The brace is on his right leg, the cast on his left, and his bandaged left arm is in a sling.