The photo that has been circulating on social media purporting that one of the Cuban doctors had married a Busia man is false.
The viral photo on Facebook and WhatsApp groups claimed that the doctor, 63, identified as Manuela had married her 22- year-old boyfriend after they met at the Kakamega Referral Hospital.
It was published on Facebook by Flame TV Kenya, an online news outlet.
Several other outlets picked the article and ran stories with amplified voices on why a young man would end up marrying an older woman.
The Star’s fact-check desk investigated this claim and established that no such incident had happened.
We made an inquiry at the Busia County Government to find out if they had been informed about the alleged marriage.
Although marriage is a social affair and concerned parties choose on who to invite and not, working under the county government, at least a senior official at the county would have been informed.
Chief Officer Health Isaac Omeri confirmed there was no such marriage that had taken place.
In the description of the photo, the venue where the marriage happened was not indicated but the background indicates the couple might have been at a beech.
Secondly, we looked at the details of the four doctors deployed in Kakamega and Busia counties to establish whether one among them was identified as Manuela as claimed in the photo.
The Star established that while Busia county received two doctors; a family doctor and a nephrologist – David Rodrigues and Sorangel Taylor, Kakamega received family physician Alba Gercia, who specialises in comprehensive health care, and intensivist Milver Gomez – a specialist in critical care.
Evidently none of them is called Manuela.
We dug deep to establish where the photos had originated from. Using Google search tools, we established the photos were originally published by online entertainment publications in Ghana.
“A young Ghanaian man has caused a stir on social media as he has found the love of his life. This young man trended on social media as photos from his low-key wedding with his old white lady surfaced online,” read one of the articles.
We further established that these online publications, including Opera News, picked the article after it was originally posted on Instagram by renowned broadcaster Abeiku Santana.
According to Santana, the young man by the name Nii and his wife got married at La Pleasure Beach in Ghana on June 25 and has nothing to do with Kenya as alleged.
The beach also known as Labadi Beach is the busiest beach on Ghana‘s coast.
It is one of Accra‘s beaches and is maintained by the local hotels in a town called La, popularly known as Labadi, near Teshie in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.