Uhuru, Ruto and the economics of truth in campaigns

Since the launch of Fact Check, the Nation Newsplex audit of campaign trail statements, the President and his deputy have been cited 10 times for their economy with truth.

During the Jubilee Party manifesto launch, for example, President Uhuru Kenyatta said births in hospitals tripled under Jubilee.

Fact checkers found the actual numbers showing that deliveries increased by 165,492 in 2013/2014; 184,158 in 2014/2015; and 100,314 in 2015/2016.

BIRTHS

For his claim to be true, there would have had to be more than 1.38 million deliveries in the 2016/2017, triple the number in 2012/2013.

Such a number could only be increased if there were 474,026 more births than the previous year.

Recently, the President claimed that Kilifi County had received Sh9.6 billion every year since 2013.

FOOD PRODUCTION

Again, fact checkers found that Kilifi only received more than Sh9 billion in equitable share and conditional grants from the national government this financial year.

Mr Kenyatta told a rally in Kutus that he was waiting for Mr Raila Odinga to give him a solution to the maize shortage in Kenya and did not see one word from the National Super Alliance manifesto.

Again, the document surprisingly had a plan to boost production of Kenya’s staple.

TJRC REPORT
The President has blamed the Opposition for failing to compensate victims of the 2007 post-election violence but his claims were found to be fact-free.

Deputy President William Ruto also claimed he could not find a single sentence in the Nasa manifesto on irrigation, but was found to have created his own facts.

Mr Ruto recently claimed that implementing the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report would lead to ethnic minorities being asked to return to their ancestral lands.

Fact checkers found that the intent of the report was quite the opposite.

DEBATES
During the Jubilee manifesto launch, Mr Ruto said the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme would be producing 30,000 bags of maize every month, despite spending only a third of the Sh15 billion — contrary to budget information.

He also claimed that Kenya had exceeded the international standard of 380 citizens to a police officer, but no evidence was found to support that claim.

He was also found to be withholding the truth on consultations around the presidential debates when he claimed to have learnt of them through a news alert.

SGR PROJECT
In contrast, Fact Check only caught the Nasa presidential candidate, Mr Odinga, massaging facts thrice.

He claimed the Lamu Port South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor project was no longer ongoing contrary to evidence; and again said the Standard Gauge Railway would stop in Naivasha when it was going to Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

He claimed that South Korea’s economy was 45 times larger than Kenya’s when it is only 20 times bigger.

HOUSING
Nasa co-principal Musalia Mudavadi said the Jubilee government had thrice gone to court to reduce money meant for Mandera by 40 per cent, but it had only appealed once.

Mr Mudavadi also told a rally in Kiambu that rents had gone up because of Value Added Tax on real estate, but it was found VAT is levied on commercial real estate, not residential.

SUGARCOAT

Given the media obsession with truth in the President’s and his deputy’s words, it would have been foolhardy for them to agree to 90 minutes of debate and questioning.

Truth is overrated, given that it is known to be bitter and unpalatable.

Political leaders have a duty to reduce the misery of the public confronting reality by licking it into the right shapes, colours and sizes with words that veil the facts.

LIES
Falsehood flies, said Jonathan Swift, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late.

If a lie is believed for only an hour, it has done its work and there is no further work for it.

The writer is Programme Advisor, Journalists for Justice. The views expressed here are his own and do no reflect those of JFJ;[email protected]