IN SHORT: Amid protests in Kenya on 7 July 2025, photos circulated online with the claim that they showed houses from the government’s affordable housing programme on fire. But the images are old and actually from China and Venezuela.
On 7 July 2025, Kenyans took to the streets to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the historic Saba Saba protests, which marked the beginning of the country’s push for multiparty democracy.
The 2025 demonstrations were marred by violence that resulted in deaths and destruction of property.
As police clashed with protesters, some social media users posted photos of multistoried buildings on fire. They claimed the burning units were part of the government’s affordable housing programme under construction in Nakuru city, Nakuru county. Others alleged that the photos were taken in Eldoret, a city in Uasin Gishu county in western Kenya.
“Happening Now! Affordable housing In Nakuru on fire,” reads one post.
The affordable housing programme is an initiative by president William Ruto’s government aimed at providing decent and affordable housing to low and middle-income households. Under the programme, the government plans to construct 200,000 affordable housing units annually.
The photos appeared here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of this report.)
But do they actually show affordable housing units on fire? We checked.
Photos old, unrelated
The protests in Kenya have received wide media coverage. If protesters had set a building on fire, it would have made headlines. But we found no such reports.
Africa Check ran the three photos through a reverse image search to determine whether they were related to the 7 July protests.
The results showed that the first photo is at least 20 years old. According to its caption on a construction information website, it shows a 56-story building on fire in Caracas, Venezuela, in October 2004.
A reverse image search of the second and third photos shows a fire that engulfed an apartment building in Shanghai, China, in November 2010, killing at least 58 people. The photos were published on news websites at the time.
The circulating photos don’t show affordable housing units on fire in Kenya.
The photos also appear here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
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