Kenya had the highest cases of COVID-19 in Africa and the fifth-highest in the world on May 6.
The tweet states that Kenya reported 47 new cases, which is accurate, as was confirmed by Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe on May 6. This was the highest daily jump since the first case was reported on March 13., It is also true that the government announced a cessation of movement into and out of Nairobi’s Eastleigh area and Old Town in Mombasa for 15 days beginning at 7 pm on May 6., The tweet includes a modified photo of the CS wearing a turban. The original photo was taken during a press briefing on April 18., According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) daily situation report for May 6, South Africa was leading in Africa with 7,439 cases of the coronavirus disease, while the country with the fifth-highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world was Russia, with 165,929 cases., The data reflected the situation on May 5, showing that Kenya had 535 cases at that point. While this does not take into account the May 6 figures announced by Kenya’s Ministry of Health showing an increase in confirmed cases to 581, it would still not put the country near the continent’s top eight countries — all of which have more than 1000 cases each., PesaCheck has looked into the claim that on May 6, Kenya had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Africa and fifth-highest in the world, and finds it to be FALSE., 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., Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content., This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Simon Muli and edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Enock Nyariki., The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi., 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., Written by, Written by
FALSE: Kenya did not have the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Africa on May 6