IN SHORT: An image of a protester kicking a tear gas canister while another appears to be waving the Tanzanian flag has been circulating online. But the image has been manipulated and claims that it is from Tanzania’s post-election protests in 2025 are false. The original photo shows the protester holding the Kenyan flag on the streets of Nairobi during 2024 anti-tax bill protests.
Tanzania held its general election on 29 October 2025. Protests erupted across the country on election day as key opposition leaders had been barred from the presidential race. Local and international news outlets reported cases of vandalism, death and violence.
The Tanzanian government responded by imposing a curfew and internet restrictions, with police reportedly using tear gas and live ammunition to control crowds.
Amid the protests, an image began circulating on social media with claims that it showed scenes of unrest in Dar es Salaam.
The image shows a protester kicking a tear gas canister while another person standing nearby appears to be holding the Tanzanian flag. The smoke of tear gas partially obscures other demonstrators in the background.
In one instance, it is captioned, in Kiswahili: “Ni kama Tanzania recruited the returning officer from Kenya.” This loosely translates to: “It’s like Tanzania recruited the returning officer from Kenya.”
The term returning officer refers to the official who oversees and announces election results. But in this context, it has been repurposed to describe a demonstrator returning police tear gas canisters as an act of defiance during a protest.
The same image was also featured in a 29 October article by news outlet the Star Kenya, with the caption: “A protester on the streets of Dar es Salaam kick a tear gas canister on election day, October 29, 2025. /SCREENGRAB.”
But was this photo really taken in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, during the post-election protests? We checked.
Photo taken in Kenya, not Tanzania
Africa Check ran the photo through a reverse image search and found it in news reports from 25 June 2024 here and here.
Based on these articles, we searched the internet for the phrase: “A protester kicks a tear gas canister while demonstrating during a nationwide strike to protest against tax hikes and the Finance Bill 2024 in downtown Nairobi, on June 25, 2024.”
The results led us to the original photo on Getty Images, a stock photo site. The photo is credited to Luis Tato, a photographer at news agency Agence France-Presse, and is captioned:
A protester kicks a tear gas canister while demonstrating during a nationwide strike to protest against tax hikes and the Finance Bill 2024 in downtown Nairobi, on June 25, 2024. Kenyan police fired tear gas at crowds of young protesters in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday, according to AFP reporters, as demonstrators rallied across the country against the government's proposed tax hikes. The mainly Gen-Z-led rallies, which began last week, have taken President William Ruto's government by surprise, with the Kenyan leader saying over the weekend that he was ready to speak to the protesters.
Kenya was rocked by protests in June 2024, sparked by that year’s proposed Finance Bill, which included controversial tax hike proposals. The bill was later withdrawn.
In the original photo, the protester was holding the Kenyan flag, not the Tanzanian flag.
The image circulating in 2025 has also been cropped to remove the sign for the Azuri restaurant seen in the original photo. According to Google Maps, the restaurant is located on Nairobi’s Moi Avenue.
The photo was taken in Kenya during the June 2024 anti-tax bill protests, not in 2025 in Tanzania’s post-election demonstrations.
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 guideAfrica 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