IN SHORT: A photo of Kenyan activist Hanifa Adan and governor Johnson Sakaja has been circulating online since June 2025, with users questioning her loyalty to protest movements. However, the photo dates back to June 2024.
A photo circulating on Facebook shows Kenyan activist Hanifa Adan Farsafi walking with Johnson Sakaja, the governor of Kenyan capital Nairobi.
They appear to be chatting in a crowded street, prompting social media speculation and accusations of betrayal. The scene is set in a busy urban area, suggesting that the photo was taken at a public event.
One viral caption reads: “Hanifa spotted with Governor Johnson Sakaja. Is she still with us? Weuh.”
Why did the photo raise eyebrows?
Hanifa, as she is popularly known, has been a prominent figure in Kenya’s youth protests since 2024, speaking out against police brutality and injustice. She has participated in numerous demonstrations calling for accountability.
In 2025, renewed protests were held in Kenya to mark one year since the 2024 Gen Z demonstrations against taxation, in which 60 people died at the hands of the police.
These protests were also fuelled by widespread outrage over police brutality, including the death of teacher Albert Ojwang in police custody.
During the protests in June 2025, Hanifa was reportedly attacked by suspected hired thugs in Nairobi's central business district.
Sakaja has denied hiring so-called goons to violently disrupt peaceful protests by young people.
Against this backdrop, a photo of Hanifa and Sakaja smiling together could fuel online narratives that question Hanifa’s loyalty to the cause she champions so publicly.
This photo also appears here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But does it show the current state of affairs between Hanifa and Sakaja?
Video captured in 2024, not 2025
A Google reverse image search reveals that the photo in question is not from 2025. It is a frame from a one-second video that Hanifa posted on 1 June 2024, weeks before the first wave of protests against the finance bill began.
In her caption, Hanifa said she met Sakaja during the commissioning of a road in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
Hanifa wrote: “We are in the office and get a call that Sakaja is in Eastleigh commissioning the 9th street road. We rush and I was actually walking on the sidelines because of the crowd and he calls me and asks ‘I told you I keep my word right?’ I say yes yes governor thank you for fixing this road. For those of you that know, we fought for this road for years. It was an absolutely amazing view for me seeing that road fixed. Thank you @SakajaJohnson now, onto pipeline?”
Pipeline is another area of Nairobi with dilapidated infrastructure.
Sakaja also posted about the same event on 2 June 2024, confirming his attendance at the road commissioning in Eastleigh.
The photo is genuine, but it is used out of context. It was taken in June 2024, long before the 2025 protests and the events that escalated tensions between protesters and government officials.
The 2024 photo also appears here, here, here, here, here and here.
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