FACT CHECK: Senator Gideon and Atwoli were not left stranded at a Malawi airport

No. Baringo Senator Gideon Moi and Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli were not left stranded at a Malawi airport.

 Information circulating on social media claiming that the two were left stranded at an airport in Malawi is false.

The message with a photo-shopped picture of Atwoli claimed that the two had been left stranded after the inauguration of Malawi's new President Lazarus Chakwera was postponed.

The first indication the information was false was that Chakwera’s inauguration was not postponed.

Though Chakwera cancelled Monday's Independence Day Celebrations, he did not cancel his inauguration but rather scaled down his ceremony to an invite-only guest list of 100.

This was as a result of increasing Covid-19 infections across the Malawi nation.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had chosen Baringo Senator Gideon Moi and Namwamba to represent him at the inauguration.

Secondly, the Star’s fact-check desk contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish whether Atwoli was among Kenya’s delegation to the ceremony.

The response we got from the communication team indicated that Atwoli was not among them. Only Foreign Affairs CAS Ababu Namwamba and Senator Moi had traveled.

This was accompanied by arrival pictures at the Lilongwe International Airport.

It should also be noted that there is no airport in Malawi called Bingu as indicated in the viral photo.

We called Namwamba, who confirmed he and Gideon had just arrived in Lilongwe and were witnessing the inauguration parade at the Kamuzu Barracks.

“Senator Hon Gideon Moi and myself are at the ceremony ongoing right now at Kamuzu Barracks Parade Ground, Lilongwe representing H.E President Uhuru Kenyatta,” he said.

We reached out to Atwoli to establish whether he had traveled to Malawi for the inauguration but he was unavailable.

This fact-check was produced by the Star in partnership with Code for Africa’s iLAB data journalism programme, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie