Back to Africa Check

No, photo not of police brutality during Kenya’s coronavirus curfew

A photo posted on a Kenyan Facebook group shows uniformed officers beating a woman and a man with batons. The woman is on her knees as an officer strikes her.

“Police will kill Kenyan's more than corona will do. #CurfewKenya,” the caption reads.

The photo also appears in a post that’s been shared more than 1,600 times. The text reads: “I feel alot of pain when i see many policemen beating one woman like this even when she is on her knees in the name of curfew nonsense ... She only got late after staying at bus stage from 4pm up to past 7pm waiting for matatu.” (A matatu is a minibus taxi.)

On 27 March 2020, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta imposed a daily dusk-to-dawn curfew to help contain the spread of Covid-19

The Star newspaper has used the photo in one of their articles on the curfew.

The curfew, from 7pm to 5am, is being enforced by Kenyan police. But photos, videos and media reports of police brutality under the curfew have been widely condemned.

Does the Facebook photo show more curfew brutality? We checked. 



Photo from 2016 opposition protests


A reverse image search reveals the photo was taken by Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic in 2016. It shows police violence during protests by then-opposition party Coalition for Reforms and Democracy against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. 

The Reuters caption reads: “Kenyan policemen beat protesters during clashes in Nairobi, Kenya May 16, 2016.” The photo also appears in a Reuters news report on the protests.

The photo is nearly four years old. It was not taken during the current curfew. – Dancan Bwire




 

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.