Back to Africa Check

No, photo of burned man taken in Zimbabwe, not Kenya’s Mandera West

A disturbing photo of a man with huge blisters on his back has been shared on Facebook in Kenya.

“A jealous woman burnt her husband using hot water mixed with cooking oil at Sake, Gither ward, Mandera west constituency,” the description reads. “This is the third incident in a period of one month.” Mandera West is in Kenya’s Mandera county.

What’s the real story behind the photo? We checked.



Photo from Zimbabwe, not Mandera


A Google reverse image search reveals that this story first surfaced online on 3 February 2020 on the website  of the Zimbabwean tabloid H-Metro. It appears in an article headlined: “Attempted murder!”

It reports on Benson Nhekairo from Borrowdale, Zimbabwe, who was scalded with cooking oil by his wife. The article shows five different photos of Nhekairo’s burns.

The incident was also covered by iHarare.com with a “GRAPHIC Video of Church Elder Scalded by Cheating Wife.”

The video is indeed graphic, showing the extent of the burns on Nhekairo’s back, neck and face.

“The case is being handled at Borrowdale Police Station under case number CR457/01/2020 and is still under investigation,” iHarare reports.

The victim is not from Mandera West in Kenya. He’s from Zimbabwe.

The only report we could find of such an incident in Mandera is from 5 December 2018. A Mandera woman was reported to have scalded her husband with hot water for speaking to his first wife. – 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.