IN SHORT: Hundreds of people attended the funeral service of Kenyan TikToker Brian Chira. But three images of heavy traffic, circulating on social media, do not show his friends and followers on their way to his funeral.
Kenyan TikTok star Brian Chira died on 16 March 2024. He was famous for his witty videos on the short video platform, where he had over 460,000 followers.
On 26 March, hundreds of mourners attended his funeral in Kiambu county, about 16 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, the country’s capital.
On the day of his funeral, many social media users posted three images of heavy traffic, claiming they showed the large turnout.
One post reads: “Tiktokers and Friends of Brian Chira traveling to Githunguri, Kiambu County, to attend his official farewell.”
The same claim can be found on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But do the photos show cars headed to Chira’s funeral? We checked.
Images not related to Chira’s funeral
Africa Check found that one of the images was first posted on X on 24 March, two days before Chira’s funeral. It was captioned, in Kiswahili: “Niko kiambu na jam imeshika mbaya.” This translates to “I'm in Kiambu and there’s heavy traffic”.
Google Lens shows that the second image has been online since January 2021. It was posted on X by Ma3Route, a Kenyan platform that shares traffic updates.
The third image has been online since 2019, also according to Google Lens. It was used in an article on the Nairobi News website, with the caption: “Motorists in traffic along Thika Superhighway in Nairobi.”
The images are old and not related to Chira’s funeral.
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