History of Musyoka’s support for Odinga
Musyoka supported Odinga’s candidacy in 2013, 2017 and 2022. In 2013, his party was part of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), which fielded Odinga as its presidential candidate. Cord was defeated by the Jubilee coalition, led by Uhuru Kenyatta.
Musyoka also supported Odinga in 2017, as part of the National Super Alliance. Odinga was again defeated by Kenyatta.
In 2022, Musyoka continued to support Odinga, who was contesting under the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition. This time, Odinga was defeated by Ruto.
Musyoka has said that he will not support Odinga’s bid in 2027. He has walked back on a similar declaration before.
Ruto and Odinga’s relations, significantly improved in 2024, after years of political wrangling.
Their relationship became even more conspicuous when Ruto sacked almost his entire cabinet in July and included opposition members in his new cabinet. The new appointments followed deadly youth-led anti-government protests sparked by the unpopular Finance Bill, which included controversial tax hike proposals.
The newfound friendship saw Ruto support Odinga’s bid to chair the African Union Commission, the secretariat of the African Union. Djibouti’s Mahmoud Youssouf won the election in February 2025.
The graphic appears to be a call by Maanzo for Musyoka to join Ruto’s government, in return for 2032 support. But did the Makueni county senator say this? We checked.
Fake graphic
The statement by Maanzo would have been picked up by local media, but Africa Check found no such quote reported by credible news agencies.
The Standard usually posts its graphics on its verified social media accounts, including Facebook and X. We scoured these accounts but couldn’t find the graphic.
On 26 February 2025, the news site posted the suspicious graphic on Facebook, with the word “fake” printed on it.
“BEWARE! This post is not from us,” it wrote.
The WDM party also labelled the graphic’s contents as “fake news”.
The fake graphic was also posted here, here, here and here.
