Photo shows South African woman convicted of stealing student funds, not a Kenyan cooking oil thief

A picture has been shared on Facebook alongside a declare that it demonstrates a Kenyan female who appeared in courtroom for allegedly stealing cooking oil. The declare is phony: the picture exhibits Sibongile Mani, a South African lady sentenced for thieving dollars that was unintentionally credited to her account by the country’s Nationwide Student Money Support Plan.

“Nairobi: Girl Arraigned In Court docket for Stealing 3ltrs of Cooking Oil After a Sleepover (sic),” reads component of a Facebook publish revealed on April 4, 2022, and shared far more than 240 instances.

The thief, the submit more promises, was arrested in Mwiki, a residential area in Kenya’s cash of Nairobi. Also pointed out are the purported names of individuals involved.

Beneath the caption is a picture of a female standing in a courtroom dock with a symbol for “Algoa FM News”.

The claim was also shared here and listed here on Fb, and on a page impersonating the Kenyan law enforcement.

Even so, there is no proof the claimed scenario ever took put.

Additionally, the girl in the graphic is not Kenyan. She was convicted in an unrelated matter in South Africa.

No foundation to tale

AFP Reality Check executed a reverse impression research and discovered the image on the Algoa FM Fb webpage. Algoa FM is a South African radio station. 

The image displays Sibongile Mani, a South African woman sentenced to five years in prison for stealing cash erroneously credited to her financial institution account by the Countrywide Student Financial Assist Scheme.

Her story was greatly noted in South Africa (right here and listed here).

Even more lookups using distinct facts these as names stated in the posts unsuccessful to locate any verifiable reports of an incident in Kenya involving the theft of cooking oil.

Even so, the declare does surface to be primarily based on a fabricated article published by Opera News, a website notorious for bogus and deceptive tales.

AFP Fact Verify has formerly debunked phony and deceptive tales revealed by Opera Information (below and in this article).

AFP Truth Test asked Kenyan law enforcement to validate the existence of a case in accordance to the details published by Opera News. They have nonetheless to react.

In the meantime, nearby media in Kenya have noted that the price of cooking oil in the nation has extra than doubled in the past two several years. 

The war in Ukraine has also affected world foodstuff stability, driving up price ranges of essential items like vegetable oil.