THE DEEP DIVE 18TH EDITION

We're looking back at 2021, what we are working on for 2022 and fact checks!

Well, even if at times it felt like it would never come, the end of 2021 is nigh! What a year it has been!

From the January 6th  insurrection in Washington D.C. to the the devastation of the COVID Delta variant across the world, the world has had one for the books. The fallout and breakthroughs wrought from the global COVID-19 pandemic continue to dominate a lot of our time, with the sadly very predictable unequal treatment that African countries have endured bringing a bitter close to 2021 for many across the continent. Closer to home, East Africa has been an incredibly eventful place to live; two heads of state died in office and the region for its first female head of state in Samia Suluhu Hassan. Yoweri Museveni, the oldest among the region's leaders extended his term to become one of Africa's longest serving presidents, and Uhuru Kenyatta, the leader of East Africa's largest economy juggled a new friendship with his once bitter political rival with the spurning of his deputy. In the midst of all of this, we've put out eighteen newsletters!

Producing this newsletter for our ever growing audience has been quite the honour for us. We've had some very loyal readers from the beginning, like Preston-Allan Wandera. Thank you for your support Preston! We see you! For all of you who have read, critiqued and shared this newsletter, thank you! We promise to keep improving with every edition. As an early Christmas present just for you, we'll let the cat out of the bag on something we've been working on for early 2022. Read on for what that is.
We've also got our final twitter space of 2021 up this Thursday hosted by our very own Cynthia Gichiri - its going to be great so look out for that.

One more thing...

The newsletter would not have made it out on time were it not for the efforts of a few people; Sam Munia, our assignment editor, Cecilia Ashioya our social media manager and Linda Ngari, the fearless leader of our fact-checking team of reporters. Thank you all.

For the last time in 2021...Dive in!

John-Allan

PSSST.....! HERE'S WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON FOR 2022

We know that things have been tough in 2021 - there's lots that has happened, and for at least part of the year, your thoughts have been on the economy. So have ours. Our graphics editor, Clement Kumalija thought about the economy so much, that he conceived the idea for our upcoming series: "Thao" - the story of money, told by money itself! Scripted by John-Allan Namu and edited by John Gathuna, the six-episode series will have you looking at money in a whole different way! Stay tuned, it drops in January 2022!

We're also ready with our ten-part gameshow, "For Fact's Sake!" COVID-19 has been a terrible drain on millions of us, and yet we're still dealing with its latest variant. So why not learn more about it and win some cash, we thought! From that thought, the gameshow was born! Hosted by the wonderful Clare Karatu, #FFS will have you sharpening your fact-checking skills and having fun along with 20 contestants battling it out for a cash prize and bragging rights! "For Fact's sake" will be published in January 2022 as well.

Our team has also been working hard on a third season of "MaishaMkanda", a documentary series that takes you into the lives of everyday Kenyans with extraordinary stories. The series airs on local pay T.V. Channel Maisha Magic plus in January 2022.

Africa Uncensored got a lot of explainer journalism, in-depth stories and investigations planned for 2022, so don't miss out! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on all our socials for more!

JOIN THE NEWSROOM

Join us this Thursday, December 23rd at 7pm for our twitter space, where we will be discussing some of the issues that shaped 2021 . Follow us on twitter @afuncensored for more details.

2021 REVIEW ON FACT CHECKS

2021 seasons and misinformation, because fake news thrives when there's something new and exciting or something new and terrifying...

Plenty of jobs, as seen in the past, will be promised at the beginning of the year. Same way the rolling out of vaccines which began in March 2021 bore its fair share of lies, including claims that there had been vaccines specifically created for Africans for some sinister ulterior motive, or that taking alcohol within 45 days of vaccination will tamper with immune response. The same trend is seen with the ongoing floods, where in the spirit of fear-mongering, images are drawn from past floods or different locations. This is evident in fact-checks published here, here and here. Fake news peddlers and potential cons have also begun promising fake Christmas offers under the guise of reputable brand names like Jamii Telecommunications Limited.

For Kenya in particular, 2022 calls for more vigilance seeing as it is an election year. The Piga Firimbi team has already debunked numerous election-related claims, and this is expected to rise as the general elections draw closer.

Fun fact: Donald Trump is said to have peddled over 30,000 pieces of fake information over his tenure as U.S president.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has also shown that crunching up numbers to slightly boost his administration's achievements might as well be his shtick too.

This was through his eighth and last state of the nation address, which contained false claims on the progress of his Linda Mama health Programme, miscalculations on Kenya's forest cover and total electricity capacity among other claims as fact-checked here. Piga Firimbi also found that Uhuru Kenyatta's claims on Kenya leading the charts in terms of increased electricity connectivity to be misleading.

The president similarly indicated sheer dedication to excluding the country's debt rate, begging the question is the omission of the truth still a lie?

Editorial Director: John-Allan Namu

Assignment Editor: Sam Munia

Social Media Manager: Cecilia Ashioya

Contributors: Linda Ngari and Kevin Mbugua

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