The efforts of the leader of the opposition party in Kenya, Raila Odinga, to become the Chairman of the African Union (AU) are full of inaccurate information. The dangerous TikTok post alleges that Odinga stopped pursuing Odinga so that he can run for Kenya’s presidential election in 2027. But the claim is false; Odinga remains in the AU race, and the election will be held in February 2025 in Addis Ababa. Last week, he took his campaign to the capital of Ethiopia where he presented his vision for the continent.
On October 24, 2024, a TikTok account shared an audio clip of Odinga speaking at a press conference.
“Listen to Raila Odinga’s powerful speech today about rejecting the AU job to run for president in 2027,” reads the caption on the clip, which has been liked more than 8,700 times.
Screenshot of fake post, taken on November 12, 2024
In the 10-minute recording, Odinga talks about the challenges facing Africa and the need for countries to come together to address them.
“There are many things we will be aiming to deal with when we go up there. I am a candidate, as I said, and I am happy that the Kenyan government has come forward to make me a legal candidate,” he said.
“As you have been told, we have submitted our application as required by the AU, the Secretariat. And from now on, all plans go. “
The post shows a still image of Odinga taken from a television broadcast.
However, in this clip, there is no place where Odinga announces the end of his bid for AU chairmanship.
It’s still a race
A Google keyword search led us to an official Odinga-affiliated YouTube channel where we found the same speech as the one featured in the TikTok post (archived here).
“Live: Joint Press Briefing on Raila’s AUC chairmanship bid,” reads a caption on “Azimio TV” YouTube channel.
Azimio is a coalition of parties that Odinga represented in the 2022 election where he was defeated by President William Ruto in a fierce contest.
A meeting held in Nairobi by Odinga and Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi detailed the opposition leader’s bid for the AU chairmanship.
Odinga’s speech starts at the 25’20” mark in the first video and is accompanied by audio in the misleading TikTok transcript word for word.
A screenshot from a YouTube video also shows the same as compared to the fake posted image.
A screenshot comparing the fake TikTok post (left) to the original YouTube video
While answering questions from journalists at the forum, Odinga said: “I will not be too busy in Kenyan politics.” He said nothing about running for president in 2027.
The video was published on August 21, 2024 — about a week before Kenya officially launched Odinga’s election in Nairobi (archived here).
On November 8, 2024, the veteran politician took his campaign to the capital of Ethiopia (archived here) — more than two weeks after the fake text said he had thrown in the towel.
AU elections are scheduled for a secret ballot in February 2025 in Addis Ababa (archived here).
Odinga, who hopes to step into the shoes of Moussa Faki Mahamat, is one of four candidates, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Djibouti, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
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