Half truths, many lies: Fact-checking Kemi Badenoch
Since emerging as the leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly cast a shadow over her Nigerian heritage. She has portrayed her upbringing as a grim tale of poverty, crumbling infrastructure, moral decadence, corruption, police brutality, and failed leadership. Her remarks have ignited firestorms on social media, with several videos going viral. Sunday PUNCH fact checked some of her recent controversial claims.
Claim 1
“I grew up in a poor country, and I watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation. I came back to the UK at age 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life…”
Findings
According to multiple sources, including the UK Independent and The Times, Kemi Badenoch (nee Adegoke) was born to Nigerian parents, Femi and Feyi Adegoke, in Wimbledon, London, on January 2, 1980.
She is the eldest of three children, with a brother named Fola and a sister named Lola. Her father, Femi, was a general practitioner in Lagos. He owned and operated Iwosan Clinics, located on Itire Road in Surulere, Lagos. Before passing away in 2021 from a brain tumour, he was a Yoruba nationalist activist.
Kemi’s mother attended Queen’s School, Ibadan. She was a professor of physiology at the University of Lagos, where she retired in 2020 after serving for 43 years. She was a professor for 15 years and served as the president of the Nigerian Society for Endocrinology for four years. Sunday PUNCH confirmed that she supervised the Ph.D. theses of many illustrious alumni of the school, including the current head of the department.
Multiple sources revealed that Kemi spent her early years in Lagos, Nigeria, where she attended the International School Lagos, a private institution, and graduated in 1996 before returning permanently to the United Kingdom at 16.
In a tweet dated January 22, 2025, a Lagos-based tax consultant, Kayode Okunola, accused Badenoch of distorting her family’s history to fit a narrative of hardship.
“Dear @KemiBadenoch, stop lying about your background. You were never from a poor family! Your grandmother, ‘Iya Ondo,’ was a prominent lace and damask merchant on Kosoko Street in Balogun Market. Your mum was a professor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Your dad owned his clinic, your uncle was a dentist, and your aunt was among the Nigerian students recruited from the USA to the Central Bank of Nigeria,” Okunola wrote.
“If you were poor, what happened to the rest of us who prayed to come from families like yours? Your claims mock the memories of those who genuinely struggled without the opportunities your privileged upbringing afforded you. Please stop!” he added.
In an interview with Sunday PUNCH, Okunola further shed light on the privileged status of Kemi’s family.
He said, “I knew her family well. My family and the Adegokes attended the same church—St. John’s Anglican Church, Aroloya, Lagos Island. Her grandmother, ‘Iya Ondo,’ was a renowned figure in Balogun Market, selling premium fabrics, which weren’t for poor people. Her father owned Iwosan Hospital in Surulere, and her mother was a prominent figure in the Physiology Department at the University of Lagos.
“In those days, only a select few could afford private schools like the International School Lagos, where Kemi studied. It was a school for the children of professors and the elite. Most of us attended government schools. Kemi’s claims of poverty are simply untrue. Her narrative misrepresents her background and mocks the struggles of genuinely underprivileged Nigerians.”
Corroborating Okunola’s assertion, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinyemi, said Kemi lied about her family turning poor.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Akinyemi said, “How can the daughter of a professor at UNILAG (University of Lagos)—her father was a medical doctor—a girl who went to the International School at UNILAG make it sound like she was selling groundnuts and water in Lagos in order to advance her political career?”
Claim 2
“Everyone defines me as a Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with my specific ethnic group.”
Findings:
While Kemi now downplays her Nigerian identity, evidence shows that she actively embraced her heritage in the past.
In 2010, while campaigning to represent the diverse Dulwich and West Norwood constituency in the UK Parliament, she actively sought support from the Nigerian community under the tag, “Nigerians for Kemi Badenoch.” A campaign document that surfaced on social media shows that Kemi reached out to Nigerians in the constituency, emphasising her Nigerian roots.
In the document, she wrote, “Hi everyone, as you know, I’m running for Parliament in the 2010 UK general elections for Dulwich & West Norwood. The race is very tight, and I need your help.
“There are just about 20 days to go before polling day, and Nigerians have been fantastic. My immediate circle of friends, ex-schoolmates, their friends, and our families have really rallied around and been supportive.
“In a recent BBC interview, a caller insulted me because I’m Yoruba. I was very disappointed that a Nigerian woman who claims to have lived in London for 45 years had more issues with me being Yoruba than with my political views—and shamefully made her comments on national radio.
“We really need to move past this mindset of fighting one another and instead try to support each other. Regardless of party allegiance, having a Nigerian in parliament—winning purely on merit and not through family connections or by buying the election would be amazing.
“So, I am asking for your help now to support a Nigerian who is trying to improve our national image and do something great here.”
Claim 3:
“Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with northern people of Nigeria, who were our ethnic enemies, all in the name of being called a Nigerian. I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, where Boko Haram and Islamism is.”
Findings
Kemi’s claim that the Yoruba and Northern Nigerians are ethnic enemies lacks historical evidence. While there have been conflicts in the country’s history, such as political and ethnic tensions during the Nigerian Civil War, the relationship between the Yoruba and Northern Nigerians has largely been characterised by cooperation.
For instance, Yoruba and Northern traders have engaged in long-standing trade relations, particularly in markets and cities like Lagos and Kano. Also, politically, alliances between Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani leaders, such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello, show mutual cooperation rather than enmity.
On religion, there are 19 states in Northern Nigeria; while Islam is the dominant religion in the region, many Christians also reside there. Just as there are Muslims in the South-West. Contrary to Kemi’s portrayal of the North as solely Islamic, the region is home to a significant christian population. States like Plateau, Benue and Adamawa have large Christian communities, while others like Borno and Yobe have Muslim majorities, but are not exclusively Islamic.
In a post on 13th December 2024, former presidential aide Reno Omokri stated that Kemi demonstrated a surprising level of ignorance when she said Boko Haram and Islamism resided chiefly in the North.
“First and foremost, that statement is inaccurate. There is much more to Northern Nigeria than Boko Haram. In fact, there are nineteen states in Northern Nigeria, and even in its heyday, Boko Haram was limited to just three of those states: Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa,” Omokri wrote.
Claim 4:
“Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive. The police in Nigeria will rob us. When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
Findings
There are truly some bad eggs in the Nigeria Police Force. Increasing police brutality and extortion led to movements such as the #EndSARS protest. However, even the United Kingdom is not completely free of bad cops.
For instance, in 2015, a 31-year-old black man, Sheku Bayoh, died after being restrained by police officers in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. The officers reportedly used CS gas and a combination of physical restraint techniques, including kneeling on Bayoh’s back.
Similarly, in 2011, a 29-year-old black man, Mark Duggan, was shot and killed by police officers in Tottenham, London, following an attempted arrest. The police claimed he was armed, but evidence later showed that he was unarmed when he was shot.
Also in 2016, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that three Metropolitan Police officers were sentenced after stealing cash and other items from crime scenes. These indicate that elements of police brutality and extortion or theft are not limited to Nigeria police.
Ex-envoy cautions Kemi
Former Minister of Foreign affairs, Akinyemi, during his TV interview, cautioned Kemi not to build her political career on quicksand.
“She would soon learn that you don’t throw your people and your culture under the bus in order to advance your career. She is making a mistake but she will soon learn.
“After all, right now, there is even a right wing political party in the United Kingdom that is even to the right of the Conservative Party.
“So, what she should be focusing on is how to regain that right wing profile of the Conservative Party and leave Nigeria alone,” he added.
