Author(s): Publish date: 02.04.2024, 14:40 | Creation date: 02.04.2024, 14:40 | Update date: 02.04.2024, 14:40
ALTERED: This video does not show journalist Yvonne Okwara endorsing a cure for diabetes
The original video makes no mention of the diabetes cure as claimed.
A Facebook reel claiming to show Kenyan journalist Yvonne Okwara endorsing a cure for diabetes is ALTERED. The video shows the Citizen TV senior news anchor and editor on air supposedly making the endorsement.
The chyron on the lower third contains text that reads, “Important information for diabetics.”
Below that is a running text version of what Okwara seems to say.
“An African doctor has created a drug that normalises blood sugar levels in one go. He is so confident in the result that he will pay a hundred million dollars if you do not cure diabetes! Read this information at the link below because the offer ends today,” the audio says.
PesaCheck took a screenshot of one of the video frames and ran it through the Google Lens feature revealing that the video had been doctored to include the endorsement message. Among the search results is a video posted on the YouTube Channel of the Kenyan broadcaster on 14 November 2029 containing the original video.
The text on the lower third of the screen reads “Yvonne’s Take”, a commentary segment named after the news anchor. This indicates that the text about diabetes was superimposed over the original text.
According to the original audio, Okwara reads an ode to the then President Uhuru Kenyatta explaining why Kenyans are broke. Throughout the commentary, Okwara makes no mention of diabetes and neither the supposed cure endorsement.
PesaCheck has examined a video claiming to show journalist Yvonne Okwara endorsing a cure for diabetes and found 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.
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This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Senior Fact-Checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck Chief Copy Editor [Name of Editor] with research input from/ translated by (Name of researcher/Translator).
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor (Name of Managing Editor).
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.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
