A Facebook post claiming that a Kilifi, Kenya woman ran away from her wedding after learning that the boyfriend is a taxi driver and not a bank employee is false and misleading.
The post by a Facebook news and media page called The Daily Statesman on Wednesday, September 22, pictured a bride running away while being followed seemingly by a bridegroom.
It claimed that a wedding was on Wednesday morning (September 22) suspended after the bride ran out of the church in Marafa, Kilifi county when she learned that her husband to be, works as a Taxi driver and not Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB).
The post further alleged that Jackeline Wanjiru stormed out of AIC Mbeeni when she heard that Alfred Musa -her boyfriend of 4 years is a Taxi driver and not a KCB Malindi branch employee.
“Efforts by the groom's friends, and family to return her to the church for the wedding to continue failed,” the Daily Statesman post claimed.
The post got over 2,100 likes, 3,000 comments and 628 shares.
The Daily Statesman has 30,000 followers and, according to its page, it was founded in February 2017 as a subsidiary of MediaPlex Private Limited Company. The Daily Statesman and its destination website were launched in September 2017.
“The Daily Statesman has become an authoritative source for providing user-friendly databases of public information in Kenya,” the page claims.
The same photo and claim was carried by a Facebook page dubbed Kenya Trending News Arena and garnered over 400 comments and 47 shares and a Facebook page Glorious FM too.
A reverse image search of the photos posted on the Facebook post indicated that the photos were taken in 2016 and were traced to the Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
The articles associated with the image claimed that the bride ran away after she discovered the husband to be wasn’t an employee at Chevron as he had earlier claimed.
The photo was shared widely in 2016 by various websites.
The photo once again surfaced in August 2021 with the same claim.
This Nigerian website once again carried the same story but did not specify which date the incident occurred.
The claim carried by the Daily Statesman, Kenya, reporting that the photos were taken in Kilifi, Kenya is therefore false and misleading.
This fact-check was produced by Kenyans.co.ke's John Mbati in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.