Claim: The fencing of Bakoteh dumpsite is a sponsored project.
Verdict: False
Source: Facebook (Kemo Fatty)
Findings:
Mr. Kemo Fatty, a former Kanifing Municipal Council employee, claimed on social media in a viral video that the fencing of the Bakoteh dumpsite is a sponsored project through a partnership between the Kanifing Municipal Council and SOS Children Village in The Gambia. There have been counter claims that the Kanifing Municipal Council funded the fencing of the dump site and this has sparked a huge debate on social media.
Fact Check Center, in our quest to bring out the truth in the claim, launched a fact-checking exercise into the matter. According to our initial findings from desk and independent research, the Kanifing Municipal Council funded the Bakoteh Dumpsite fence project through the council’s own capital development budget,
(https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/kmc-spends-over-D6-5m-Bakoteh-Dumpsite). This is significant because our research team has not come across any material, new article, or social media post indicating a partnership between KMC and SOS on the fencing project for the dumpsite.
The fencing of the Bakoteh dumpsite has been allocated in the KMC budget under the Planning and Development Allocation as Budget Item 6 (“Bakoteh Dumpsite Fencing”) with an amount of Nine million Dalasis (9,000,000.00).
In search of more clarifications, we reached out to the BMZ project management team at the SOS children’s village in the Gambia. They informed our researchers that there was no partnership between them and KMC regarding the fencing of the dumpsite, which further confirms that the fencing project is funded by Kanifing Municipal Council and not in collaboration with SOS as it is stated in the claim.
Notwithstanding, we have tried contacting Mr. Fatty; he who made the claim for further clarifications, but Mr. Fatty did not respond to any of our text messages to him.
Conclusion
Our findings have shown that Mr. Kemo Fatty’s claim in a viral video that the Bakoteh dumpsite fencing was a partnership project between Kanifing Municipal Council and SOS Children’s Village is false, because the Council through its capital development funded the fencing project at the Bakoteh dumpsite.
