False: Bobi Wine Did Not Say He Does Not Care About Those In Jail Because He Earns Through LGBTQ Sponsorship

A screenshot circulating on TikTok and WhatsApp groups, purportedly showing a Facebook post attributed to National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Bobi Wine, claiming that he started the party as his personal business, is FALSE.

The screenshot further alleges that Wine said he doesn’t care about political prisoners because he earns from it and is sponsored by the LGBTQ.

The claim can be traced back to a TikTok account, where it was posted on April 2, 2024, and then reshared on April 3, 2024, where it was picked and shared with us by a WhatsApp user.

Evidence/ research:

Upon checking Bobi Wine’s Facebook page, we didn’t find any posts similar to or related to what the claim says. However, we came across a made on the same day as the screenshot in question, where Wine shared that he held an Ifatar dinner at the NUP Party headquarters on April 1, 2024, where family members and relatives of those in jail attended.

David Lewis Rubongoya, the Secretary General of the National Unity Platform Party, in a phone interview said that Wine did not post the information. He added that they had an Iftar event at the party head office with relatives of those in jail, and they are still extending support to them as they seek justice.

“That is propaganda created to create a certain agenda, but as the National Unity Platform, we are still demanding the release of political prisoners and working with their families to seek justice for their people,” he explained in a phone interview.

Analyzing the screenshot

A review of the screenshot’s Facebook post shows that the name Bobi Wine is bolder than it appears in an actual Facebook post. On Facebook, the name of a page or person is never bolded within a post. The bold name only appears when you visit their account or page. In this case, both the page and post names are similarly bolded, indicating that the user name was cloned when creating this screenshot.

Indicating the differences between these screenshots. — **Photo:** The left screenshot has a red circle highlighting the claim’s name, which was copied from the page name shown in the right screenshot, indicated by an orange circle. The middle screenshot shows how the name actually appears on the post.

Below the image, there are two reaction sections: the first with 10,000 likes, 823 comments, and 244 shares, and the second with 8 likes, 4 comments, and 2 shares. Facebook screenshots do not show two reaction sections, nor do the reaction sections appear to be misaligned with the post.

An image indicating red flags on the claim screenshot.Image indicating red flags on the claim screenshot. — **Photo:** *The red circle and arrows highlight the key red flags on this screenshot.*

Additionally, these reaction sets are obtained from different interfaces: the first one is a desktop interface, and the other is a mobile phone interface.

With such engagement in 8 hours, as indicated in the screenshot, no media house reported this matter, which creates more suspicion about the authenticity of this screenshot.

The hashtag “removing the dictator” is highlighted blue as a normal hashtag would appear, but for the hashtag to appear highlighted, all words are supposed to be written without spacing them.

With the aid of Forensically’s clone detector, an image verification tool, we activated the “show quantized image” command that shows compression in the image, and the results came out showing the image bits separated, giving more areas of compression, which is more evidence of a doctored screenshot.

**Photo:** *The clone detection feature in Forensically displays segments of a quantized image.*

The statement itself has grammatical errors that are not a reflection of Bobi Wine’s writing compared to the posts on his social media account

Rating/Verdict:

Bobi Wine did not say NUP is his business and that he does not care about those in jail because he earns by being sponsored by the LGBTQ. The screenshot is doctored to seem like an authentic Facebook post.

Edited by Rukia Nabbanja

This fact-check post was produced by Debunk Media Initiative under the African Fact-Checking Incubator program, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).

Reagan Kiyimba

2021 Africa Check Award-winning Fact-Checker, Media Challenge Initiative Fellow class of 2020, 2022 Code For Africa and International Fact-Checking Network Climate Change Fact-Checking Fellow, 360 Digital Sherlock, trained by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab in open-source intelligence.