Back to Africa Check

No, Botswana judges didn’t declare suspension of British parliament unlawful

A meme posted on Facebook on 12 September 2019 claims judges from Botswana declared the recent suspension of the UK parliament to be unlawful.

It shows what appears to be four judges sitting in court. The text reads: “Breaking News: These judges in Botswana have declared Boris Johnson prorogue UNLAWFUL.”

In late August British prime minister Boris Johnson requested Queen Elizabeth II to “prorogue” or suspend or the UK parliament. The queen agreed to prorogue parliament for five weeks.

But was the suspension ruled unlawful by “judges in Botswana”, as the Facebook meme claims? We checked.



Judges from Kenya, not Botswana


A Google reverse image search reveals that the judges in the meme’s photo are Kenyan supreme court judges, photographed on 15 November 2011.

The photo appears on Kenya’s Daily Nation news website.

Matter for British courts


Judges don’t usually rule on issues in other countries. Courts in Botswana – or Kenya – do not, generally speaking, have jurisdiction over matters in the UK, including the country’s exit from the European Union. The matter was recently addressed by the British supreme court.

On 24 September 2019 – 12 days after the meme was posted on Facebook – Britain’s supreme court ruled that the suspension of the UK parliament was unlawful. – Grace Gichuhi




 

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.