A Twitter user in Kenya posted a photo of a badly damaged road, claiming it showed “a section of the newly constructed Nairobi Expressway”.
The photo shows a construction worker walking next to a section of the road which has collapsed entirely into the ground. There appears to be a body of water next to the road.
The Nairobi expressway is a newly built road that begins in the Mlolongo neighbourhood in Machakos county to the east of Nairobi, passes next to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, cuts through the city centre of the Kenyan capital, and terminates in the Westlands suburb of Nairobi county.
Some sections of the 27-kilometre-long road are elevated.
The road was built by a Chinese company, and a photo showing it had collapsed so soon after construction would play up a recurring narrative of low-quality Chinese construction in Kenya.
But does the photo really show the Nairobi expressway?
We checked.
Photo shows road in Durban, damaged by floods
A reverse image search revealed that the photo was not actually the Nairobi expressway but a road in Durban, South Africa.
The road was damaged during devastating floods in April 2022 according to the eThekwini municipality, who posted a photo of the damaged section before and after repairs.
“South Coast road access to uMlazi is now open,” the municipality said on Facebook on 17 April.
The photo shows a damaged road in South Africa, not Kenya.
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