Doctored clip falsely claims Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta announced new bid for presidency

Kenya’s former president Uhuru Kenyatta retired in 2022 after serving two terms in office. As the country gears up for the 2027 general elections, a post was shared on TikTok claiming to show Kenyatta announcing he would be running for president again. But the claim is false; the audio used is AI-generated and the video is from 2022 when the former leader addressed the nation after the Supreme Court upheld the victory of his successor.

“Uhuru what’s up? What have you decided?” reads the Swahili text overlay on a TikTok video published on March 18, 2025.

The clip, shared more than 2,000 times, shows Kenyatta giving an address from behind a lectern with a presidential seal.

“Fellow Kenyans, in 2027 I will be vying for president. I’ve made a decision of coming back to politics in full force. Kindly, I would like to ask for your votes when the time comes,” Kenyatta appears to say.

2027 politics

Kenyatta retired after leading the country from 2013-2022, meeting the two-term constitutional limit an individual can serve as president (archived here and here).

He ruled alongside incumbent William Ruto, but their relationship soured before the end of their second term together (archived here). 

In the run-up to the 2022 general election, Kenyatta endorsed opposition leader Raila Odinga who lost to Ruto (archived here).

As the country prepares for the 2027 general election, Kenyatta, who is still at odds with Ruto, has yet to publicly announce his preferred candidate. His Jubilee Party has, however, endorsed former interior cabinet secretary Fred Matiang’i (archived here).

Ruto is determined to retain his seat and serve a second term as Kenya’s leader (archived here).

But the TikTok video purportedly showing Kenyatta announcing his intention to run for president again is doctored.

Edited video

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip and found the original footage published by Kenyan media outlet NTV on September 5, 2022 (archived here).

The video’s title reads: “President Uhuru Kenyatta's speech after Supreme Court judgement.”

At the time, Kenyatta was giving his views on the electoral process and the Supreme Court’s verdict to uphold Ruto’s win over Odinga. He vowed a smooth transition.

In both videos, Kenyatta can be seen standing behind the same lectern, wearing a navy-blue shirt withs flags in the background.

In the segment from the original video used in the TikTok clip, what Kenyatta actually says is: “Fellow Kenyans, on August 9, 2022, Kenyans participated in an election that ushered in new leaders at all levels of our governance realm.”

He does not talk about running for office in 2027.

AFP Fact Check analysed the audio from the TikTok clip with InVID-WeVerify's audio detection tool. The results suggested strong evidence of voice cloning.

We found no credible reports of Kenyatta announcing his intentions to vie for the presidency in 2027.