Back to Africa Check

Photo of schoolkids sitting on bricks in flooded class from Kenya, not Nigeria’s Kogi state

A photo of children sitting on bricks in a flooded mud-walled classroom has become the subject of political debate among Nigerians on Facebook.

A post on the social network claims the photo was taken at a school in the Dekina local government area of north-central Nigeria’s Kogi state.

“This is not acting,” the post reads. “This is a real-life situation in Dekina LGA of Kogi State Nigeria. Do these innocent children deserve this?” It’s dated 1 September 2021.

The post has led to scrutiny of how well Kogi state government and Dekina local authorities are doing their jobs. 

But does the photo really show pupils in a school in Dekina?

KogiState_False

Photo snapped in 2019 

A reverse image search yields several results, including an article on the Kenyan news site Tuko

“Kilifi: Netizens angered by viral photo of pupils sitting on bricks in flooded classroom,” the headline of the 9 May 2019 article reads. 

Other reports in Kenyan media confirm that the photo was taken in the country’s Kilifi county. It shows pupils of Mangororo Primary School, in the Ganze constituency.

Africa Check debunked a similar claim about the photo in 2019. Then, it was said to be a photo of a school in southern Nigeria’s Bayelsa state.

Republish our content for free

Please complete this form to receive the HTML sharing code.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.