Africa Check
Buhari campaign gets its numbers wrong about ‘record’ Nigeria agricultural exports
1st November 2018 One of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s key promises in his bid for re-election in 2019 is to create more jobs in agriculture. A top official... →
Is top ruling Jubilee Party official right about who is paying income tax in Kenya?
31st October 2018 Kenyan taxpayers are unhappy after President Uhuru Kenyatta signed off on a law that increased taxes on many goods and services, including an 8%... →
‘65% of females’ in Kenyan slum traded sex for sanitary pads? Unicef & UK newspaper pull stat from thin air
25th October 2018 Seven in 10 females in Nairobi’s Kibera slum have traded sex for sanitary pads, a British online newspaper claimed in a September 2018 article.... →
Do South Africa’s civil servants get R8 out of every R10 the government spends?
24th October 2018 South Africa’s newly minted finance minister is set to deliver his first budget speech today. Ahead of the speech, Tito Mboweni commented on the... →
Does one in 10 children in Nigeria die before their 5th birthday?
23rd October 2018 Nigeria’s social spending is shamefully low, states the ‘best and worst’ section of Oxfam’s commitment to reducing inequality index. The index... →
Digging up the numbers on informal mining in Nigeria
4th October 2018 Millions of people in Nigeria survive on artisanal and small-scale mining, the country’s minister of mines and steel, Abubakar Bwari, reportedly... →
Spectator Index tweet exaggerates Nigeria’s suicide rate
28th September 2018 Popular for the facts and figures it tweets, the Spectator Index posted a list of the suicide rates in different countries earlier this year. The... →
Check the stats, Ramaphosa – 62 people murdered on SA farms & smallholdings last year
27th September 2018 Speaking in New York, South Africa’s president claimed that farmers are not being killed in his country. Cyril Ramaphosa was commenting on a tweet... →
Yes, neighbourly South Africa helps keep Zimbabwe’s lights on
26th September 2018 After an hour and a half of answering questions in parliament, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa wasted little time on a question from the... →
Number of qualified primary school teachers and grade 6 literacy in Nigeria higher than claimed
18th September 2018 Nigeria’s ailing education system is shown in the bad shape of its public schools, the head of an educational charity said recently. The Nation... →
Tax revenue and development spend: does Kenya’s majority leader get his numbers right?
14th September 2018 The leader of the majority party in Kenya’s national assembly wasted no time in trading punches with his TV host as he waded into a national... →
Checked: Two claims about the ‘astronomical’ cost of Nigeria’s election
6th September 2018 Presidential hopeful Kingsley Moghalu recently took issue with the budget for Nigeria’s 2019 elections, comparing it to the cost of the 2014... →
Women teach and men lead? Gender inequality in South African schools examined
3rd September 2018 Studies of female teachers’ path to leadership positions usually focus on the barriers and challenges they may face. That’s why Stellenbosch... →
Violence against South Africa’s women, children: verifying claims at a men’s summit
30th August 2018 Men from organisations across South Africa came together for a summit in August 2018 to develop a “men’s charter” and a “men’s sector strategic... →
China owns 20% of Kenya’s external debt – not 70% as reported
21st August 2018 Worried about being up to its ears in debt, Kenya’s government wants to hire experts to manage its borrowing, local media has reported. Much of... →
No, murder rate for women in South Africa hasn’t spiked by 117%
20th August 2018 Claim: The UN estimates 117% rise in killing of women in South Africa since 2015 Verdict: Explainer: 117% is from data now withdrawn by Stats SA →
Townships contribute R100bn to South Africa’s economy? No way to tell
20th July 2018 “South Africa’s townships contribute up to R100-billion to the overall economy,” the chief executive of business advisory service EntBanc wrote in... →
Do 8 300 super-rich Kenyans own more than the rest?
10th July 2018 Kenya’s wealthy have little trouble remaining in the spotlight. In April 2018, British think tank Chatham House spoke of the country’s “rampant”... →
Eskom and the viral infographic: do the numbers add up?
9th July 2018 Worker protests over pay at South Africa’s power utility have led to lights being turned off across the country. The utility, Eskom, announced... →
Do 10 Nigerians die from cancer every hour?
6th July 2018 In a story about a cancer screening event, a reporter in ThisDay newspaper claimed that “at least 10 Nigerians die from cancer every hour”. Health... →
Hit or miss? 5 claims by Kenyan governors fact-checked
5th July 2018 Kenya is grading its new system of government after the constitution created 47 new administrative units in 2010. These counties started to govern... →
Are 57% of South African kids raised without fathers?
4th July 2018 In its latest advertising campaign, detergent brand Omo features a young boy reading from a homemade Father’s Day card. “Thank you for always being... →
Did the DA-led Western Cape create ‘75% of all jobs’ in SA last year? ‘Confusing’ claim correct
27th June 2018 UPDATE: This report was retracted on 25 June 2018 following concerns that important context had not been included. It has since been updated to... →
Do 80% of Nigerians lack safe drinking water? It’s worse than that
22nd June 2018 In one of his regular columns, veteran Nigerian journalist Dele Sobowale questioned whether his government was ready to provide for a growing... →
As help from Cuba arrives, is there only one Kenyan doctor for every 16,000 people?
19th June 2018 The chief of staff in the Kenyan presidency claimed the country’s doctor-to-patient ratio was one doctor to every 16 000 patients. There are 7 333... →
Do 200 000 abortions – many a ‘repeat’ – take place in SA each year?
5th June 2018 An MP seeking to introduce changes to South African abortion law claimed 200 000 abortions took place each year, many of them “repeats”. Official... →
Buhari’s 2018 Democracy Day speech: 7 main claims under scrutiny
30th May 2018 President Muhammadu Buhari gave his second Democracy Day speech on 29 May 2018 to commemorate Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999. Buhari... →
Health minister quoted outdated TB stats for Nigeria, South Africa
23rd May 2018 Nigeria’s fight against tuberculosis (TB) suffered a setback when a laboratory that analysed TB samples burned down in March 2018. Nigeria’s junior... →
Claim that malaria kills 756,000 Nigerian children each year incorrect
16th May 2018 Malaria is rife in Nigeria where about a quarter of global malaria deaths occur annually. But does it take the lives of over 756 000 Nigerian... →
Yes, South Africa spends as much on VIP protection & security as on land reform
9th May 2018 Compensation for land has “never in fact been prioritised in national budgets previously”, Gwen Ngwenya, the head of policy for the Democratic... →
Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2018 State of The Nation Address fact-checked
3rd May 2018 Following a drawn-out re-election in 2017 Uhuru Kenyatta is keen on refocusing the national agenda on development. His national address looked... →
Validating ‘the truth’ about SA’s education system
25th April 2018 A South African Twitter account promises to “tell you the truth, no matter how hard it is to accept”. But are the education claims @Sowellnomics... →
No way to tell that 70% of Nigerian inmates ‘have never been convicted’
24th April 2018 Nigerian prisoners serving time in the UK may be deported home to finish their sentences in a new 112-bed wing of the Kirikiri prison complex in... →
Do 1-in-5 Nigerian adults suffer from long-term depression? World Bank revises brief
16th April 2018 Alarmed about what it said were rising suicides in Africa’s most populous country, a national newspaper in Nigeria attributed it to every fifth... →
Do South Africans each guzzle 235 litres of water per day?
13th April 2018 Debating South Africa’s 2018 State of the Nation address, president of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Parks Tau noted that... →
South African road agency gets traffic deaths stat wrong
12th April 2018 Road safety receives particular attention from South African authorities during the holiday period and this Easter was no different. In a social... →
SA’s serial murder & rape ‘ranking’ not supported by data
10th April 2018 South Africa’s last forensic psychologist has resigned from the police, leaving law enforcement unable to quickly identify serial crime offenders,... →
Nigeria spends 5 times less per person on healthcare than SA – not 7
6th April 2018 The Nigerian government has a “poor attitude” towards financing healthcare, a national newspaper stated recently. To make its case, it compared... →
SA received R6.1-billion in 2017 from US – not R300-billion, as DA mayor claimed
3rd April 2018 South Africa should be wary of losing a major “blesser”, a South African mayor has warned. Executive mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Athol Trollip,... →
Are Nigerian immigrants top of the class in the US?
27th March 2018 US president Donald Trump is misinformed about Africans, said a group that claims to represent the interests of the Nigerian diaspora. The... →
Is Nigeria’s unemployment rate 18.8%, as widely tweeted?
8th March 2018 When an account called Spectator Index tweeted that Nigeria’s unemployment rate was 18.8%, some expressed doubt. “That Nigeria figure is... →
