This digital card attributed to the BBC, has been shared by various posts here, here, and here, alleging that the Kenyan police used poisonous gas to disperse protesters during anti-government demonstrations in Nairobi. One of the tweets sharing this digital card with the hashtag #RutoMustGo has more than 200 thousand views.
Background
About five days after President William Ruto dismissed cabinet secretaries and the attorney general, demonstrations erupted across the country on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, demanding the president’s resignation. According to Citizen TV, at least one person was shot dead in Kitengela, Nairobi County.
During the protests on Tuesday, police used teargas to disperse demonstrators. A pink-coloured tear gas hurled along Kimathi Street sparked concerns that the police were using Agent Orange, a harmful mixture of herbicides used by the US Army in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War. A number of posts on X highlighted the possible health implications of dioxin, a toxic chemical contaminant found in Agent Orange.
However, production of Agent Orange ended in the 1970s and is no longer in use.
Verification
None of the coverage of the ongoing protests in Kenya on BBC’s social media platform and website highlighted the use of a poisonous against protesters. Additionally, their latest live broadcast on YouTube was on April 2, 2024, covering the inauguration of Senegal’s President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Contrary to the circulating digital card, Mercy Juma, a BBC reporter confirmed to Piga Firimbi via WhatsApp, that it is fabricated and intended to spread misinformation.
It is not clear whether the police used the harmful defoliant to disperse protesters. However, the social media concerns fueled misinformation, including this alleged digital card by BBC reporting on the poisonous gas.
The font that BBC News uses is different from what is shown in the image shared online. A screenshot of a BBC News story on UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer hosting political leaders from the EU on 18 July shows that the text is in sentence case, where the first word and proper nouns have capital letters, rather than all caps as is shown in the post shared online.
Verdict
This digital card claiming that Kenya Police were using poisonous gas against protestors attributed to BBC News is fabricated.
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