Amid a run of infrastructure project commissioning by Kenya's President William Ruto, a video began circulating online purporting to show the Kenyan government launching a new vessel on Lake Victoria. However, the claim is false; footage of the ship's launch was geolocated to a shipyard in India, filmed in April. The vessel has no connection to Kenya.
"Rais has officially launched the MV NGEGE into the waters of Lake Victoria, marking another milestone in Kenya's push to revitalize affordable and reliable water transport," reads part of an Facebook post published on June 29, 2026.
"Rais" is Swahili for president, referring to Ruto.
"The modern vessel was proudly constructed by Kenya Shipyards Limited (KSL) under the government's affordable water transport programme," the post adds. "This initiative aims to improve connectivity, boost trade, support local fishing communities and reduce pressure on road networks around the lake region."
The post includes a clip showing a crowd cheering as a large vessel purportedly plunges into Lake Victoria -- Africa's largest freshwater lake, which borders Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (archived here).
The video was also shared on Facebook and was amplified by at least four other X accounts here, here, here, and here.
During a visit to Siaya County on March 24, 2026, Ruto unveiled a 9.5 billion shillings (about $73.3 million) investment package to boost the blue economy along Lake Victoria (archived here).
At the event, he also presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ksh1 billion (about $7.7 million) Usenge Pier in Bondo constituency, a Kenya Shipyards Limited (KSL) project aimed at improving water transport between Kisumu and Homa Bay counties.
In a statement posted on his official Facebook page, Ruto said the investment was aimed at "strengthening blue economy activities along Lake Victoria, consequently creating jobs and improving livelihoods for the residents of the lake region" (archived here).
The package, he said, also includes the completed Homa Bay pier, an ongoing pier at Muhuru Bay in Migori County, 10 fish landing sites spanning five riparian counties from Busia to Migori, a Ksh250 million (about $1.4 million) fishermen's rescue centre in Siaya, and Ksh70 million (about $540,000) each for rescue boats and fish cages.
However, the launch of a new ship did not feature in any of these announcements.
AFP Fact Check found no statement from the Kenyan government, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) or KSL announcing the commissioning or launch of a vessel named "MV Ngege". Similarly, a review of Kenyan media coverage at the time the claim was made found no reports of any such event.
Notably, on June 29, the day the purported Kisumu ship launch supposedly took place, Ruto was commissioning the Ksh3.8 billion (about $29.3 million) 820-metre Ngong Road-Naivasha Road Flyover in Nairobi (archived here).
Reverse image searches of keyframes extracted from the video traced the footage to a longer YouTube video showing the same vessel launch published by Chowgule Shipyards, an Indian shipbuilding and engineering business of Chowgule Group (archived here and here).
The video, dated April 30, 2026, bears the title: "Launching ceremony of C 312 Hansa Anholt".
According to the video's description, the ship, identified as an "8,500 DWT diesel electric ice class 1B, multi-purpose dry cargo vessel Leonhardt & Blumberg," was being launched at Kudroli Bengre in the Thannirubhavi area of Mangalore (officially called Mangaluru), in India's southwestern Karnataka state.
Leonhardt & Blumberg is a German ship management company (archived here).
The original video is more than 100 minutes long. AFP Fact Check compared screenshots from both videos, and found the ship to be identical. Other matching features include a yellow crane and a floodlight tower.
Although filmed from a more direct front-on position on the quay, the segment in the false post matches the events seen at about the 1h34'45" mark of the original footage, as the ship slides into the water to the sounds of a loud siren.
The original video also includes a simultaneous side-on view of the action.
These comparisons, together with a Google Maps search for "Chowgule" confirmed that the video was filmed at the company's Mangaluru shipyard, which sits on the banks of the Gurupura River.
Keyword searches revealed that the site was originally developed by Bharati Defence and Infrastructure Limited (BDIL), once India's second-largest private shipbuilder. The company entered insolvency proceedings in June 2017 and was subsequently ordered into liquidation by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in January 2019 (archived here and here).
Goa-based Chowgule acquired the defunct 49-acre yard in February 2023 for 75 crore rupees (about $9 million) under India's bankruptcy law, according to South Asian publication Maritime Gateway, rebranding it as the Chowgule Shipyard (archived here).
Google Earth satellite imagery captured on January 6, 2026, shows the vessel docked at the Mangaluru shipyard.
The name "NEWTIDE" is visible on the ships hull. NewTide is a Rotterdam-based maritime service provider and charter company (archived here).
Further satellite analysis using the Copernicus Browser confirmed the vessel remained docked at the Mangaluru shipyard from January until its launch in April 2026.
AFP Fact Check identified the name of the ship from the launch video as Hansa Anholt (IMO 1036836).
Further keyword searches led to a May 7, 2026, Facebook post by Leonhardt & Blumberg celebrating the launch and confirming the company as the ship's owner (archived here).
"Leonhardt & Blumberg marks the launching and christening of our 8,500 dwt Multi Purpose Vessel "HANSA ANHOLT", proudly built by Chowgule Shipyards, guided by tradition and accompanied by our esteemed godmother Mrs. Leonhardt," reads the post.
The Hansa Anholt is one of eight similar vessels built by Chowgule -- three of them for Leonhardt & Blumberg -- and set for charter by NewTide, which lists the ship among its fleet (archived here and here).
The vessel has no connection to Kenya or any of the country's maritime projects.
Kenya does have an active, publicly documented shipbuilding programme on Lake Victoria. However, neither a search of MarineTraffic's database for "MV Ngege" nor a review of KSL's list of completed projects turned up any trace of the purported vessel (archived here and here).
The last commissioned Lake Victoria vessel, the MV Uhuru II, was launched in 2022 and commissioned in October 2023 (archived here).
More recently, KSL has been constructing a 29-metre shallow-draft ferry at its Kisumu Shipyard, which will become the first public ferry operated by KPA on the lake (archived here).
In a post on X, Kenya's Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo confirmed in March 2026 that the project was 50 percent complete, with most welding work done and structural joining finalised (archived here).
The ferry, however, remains under construction and had not been launched at the time of writing, and bears no resemblance to the large ocean-going cargo ship shown in the viral footage.