Faulty AI translation sparks false death rumours about Prince Wasajja

A translation error generated by artificial intelligence sparked concern on social media after a post about Prince David Kintu Wasajja was wrongly interpreted as announcing his death. 

The confusion followed an update shared by BBS Terefayina, the official television station of the Buganda Kingdom.

The Luganda post accompanied a photo showing Prince Wasajja chatting with Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II during the Kabaka Birthday Run at Lubiri in Mengo on April 12, 2026. 

The message referred to the prince’s presence at the event marking the Kabaka’s 71st birthday.

However, the automatic AI translation attached to the post incorrectly read: “We mourn the passing of Prince David Kintu Wasajja at the Palace in Mengo at the age of 71.” 

The translation quickly circulated online, causing panic among some users who believed the prince had died.

Prince David Kintu Wasajja is a brother to Kabaka Mutebi and one of the senior princes of the Buganda Kingdom. 

Following the circulation of screenshots on other social media platforms, BBS Terefayina issued a clarification explaining that the translation was incorrect. 

The station noted that the Luganda message had been misinterpreted by AI translation technology.

“Our viewers, we ask you not to be confused by Grok translation technology, which wrongly translated a post from Luganda and painted a wrong image, ” the station posted

“Those who spread the wrong translation from "Indonesian Grok Translation' have their own intentions."

Experts say such errors occur because automated translation tools often struggle with context, cultural expressions and low-resource languages.

Machine translation systems can misinterpret ambiguous words or phrases when they lack sufficient context. 

Studies also show that AI tools frequently mistranslate culturally specific phrases and ambiguous terms, sometimes producing meanings that differ completely from the original message. 

Additionally, research indicates that translations involving less represented languages can suffer from grammatical and semantic errors due to structural differences and word-for-word interpretation. 

These weaknesses can lead to what experts call “catastrophic errors”, where the translated output diverges sharply from the intended message and spreads misinformation.