IN SHORT: A viral TikTok video claims that a bus belonging to Butere Girls high school was set on fire, following controversy in Kenya about a play put on by the school. But the video uses old footage from the US and falsely links it to recent events in Kenya.
An 11-second TikTok video is circulating with the caption: “Butere Girls School Bus set on fire.”
The video starts with a typical TV-style breaking news animation, followed by a shot of a burning school bus engulfed in flames in what appears to be an isolated parking lot. Text on the lower-third of the screen reads “School bus set on fire” and “Breaking News”. The bus then explodes and burns further.
A wider shot then shows firefighters and a fire truck at the scene, with the fire largely subdued and the bus emitting thick smoke. Over this, audio plays of former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta speaking in Kikuyu, rhetorically asking whether the government was chosen “to stand on cars” or to work. This refers to the common practice of Kenyan politicians campaigning from the rooftops of their cars.
The video has over 136,000 views and more than 1,200 likes.
Butere Girls controversy
The video was shared at a time of heightened public interest in Butere Girls high school, following controversy over their play Echoes of War. The play, written and directed by former Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala, focuses on themes of social justice and poor governance. It was disqualified from regional drama festivals for unclear reasons, prompting a legal challenge by a former student. A high court ruling later ordered the play’s reinstatement in the festivals.
Events escalated in early April 2025 as the students prepared to perform the play at the school festivals in Nakuru. Police blocked Malala from accessing the training venue. Journalists at the scene were teargassed, and Malala was arrested but released the following morning. On the day of the play’s scheduled performance, the students went on stage, sang the national anthem and left without performing, reportedly due to frustration.
As the students boarded their school bus to leave, crowds cheered them on, prompting police to fire teargas to disperse them. These events have dominated Kenyan public discourse.
It’s within this politically charged context that the viral video of the burning bus emerged. But is it true that the Butere Girls school bus was set on fire? We checked.
Old and unrelated footage
A closer look at the video shows several inconsistencies. The burning bus in the video looks different from most Kenyan school buses. It does not resemble the Butere Girls school bus seen in verified footage and news reports. The design of the fire truck and firefighters' uniforms also do not look Kenyan.
Reverse image searches of both the breaking news animation and the burning bus reveal that the footage comes from KPRC 2, a news channel based in the US state of Texas. The original clip was posted on 30 January 2020. It shows a school bus that caught fire in Houston, Texas.
The audio of former president Uhuru Kenyatta is from a speech made in February 2022, during a political event known as the “Sagana 3 meeting”. The audio was likely added to add more political drama to the footage.
But the video clip clearly has no connection to Kenya or to Butere Girls high school.
The claim that the burning bus belongs to Butere Girls is false. It is old footage from the US.
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