A video showing an altercation between a Chinese national and an African at a mining site made rounds across various social media platforms. The video shows the Chinese man first attacking the African, who retaliates by kicking him, which irritates the Chinese as he goes after the African with a weapon.
This fight gained a lot of traction, being shared by American rapper Snoop Dogg on Instagram, as well as former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko on Twitter. A Facebook post published on June 10, 2021 claimed that the video shows a Chinese man attacking a Kenyan. In this post, a voice is heard commentating on the fight in Swahili. The same claim was also published on YouTube on June 13.
Background
A similar incident stirred anger among Kenyans in February 2020 after the circulation of a video showing a Chinese boss at the Chez Wou restaurant in Nairobi beating a Kenyan employee for being late. The video showed the Chinese boss hitting his employee with a cane as punishment. Four Chinese nationals who ran the restaurant were arrested as they were also found to have been in the country illegally. Later on, the Cabinet Secretary for interior affairs Fred Matiang’i ordered that the four should be deported.
WATCH: 'K24 Digital' has exclusively obtained a disturbing video clip showing a senior Chinese hotel officer whipping a Kenyan waiter over allegations of reporting late to work. The video was recorded at Chez Wou Restaurant in Kileleshwa, Nairobi last week. pic.twitter.com/CTIns3wOyn
— K24 TV (@K24Tv) February 8, 2020
Verification
Using the Invid tool, Piga Firimbi ran an analysis of the video and found various claims about its origin. There are posts claiming that it originated from Tanzania, another YouTube post cites Nigeria, a tweet claims it is from Zimbabwe and other claims cite Sierra Leone.
An image reverse search from the analysis however revealed that the video was first posted on Facebook on June 8, 2021 by a user in Sierra Leone. The post was captioned ‘The Chinese Misbehaving in Sierra Leone’ and does not contain the Swahili commentator’s voice that is heard in the posts claiming that the incident took place in Kenya.
Piga Firimbi also found that a press statement issued by the China Railway Seventh Group company on June 9, 2021 revealed that the incident took place at the Tonkolili mine site in Sierra Leone. The statement indicates that the company condemns the behavior of the Chinese national who is their staff. The African involved was said to be a Sierra Leonean staff of the Kingho Mining group. The Kingho mining group also issued a statement on June 9, where it was revealed that the incident took place on June 8, 2021.
This proves that the video does not originate from Kenya and that it had been doctored to include the Swahili audio.
In a tweet posted by the Gleaner Newspaper Sierra Leone on June 11, the Chinese and the Sierra Leonean were seen shaking hands and said to have resolved their dispute.
China Railway Seventh Group (CRSG) Resolves the dispute between a Chinese CRSG staff and a Sierra Leonean Kingho staff, following a fight at their repair shop at Tonkolili mine site as indicated in the video clip on social media… 1/2 #SierraLeone #SaloneTwitter pic.twitter.com/WjhRo68Y42
— Gleaner Newspaper Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 (@GleanerSierraLe) June 11, 2021
Verdict
Posts claiming that the video showing a Chinese and African fighting originates from Kenya are FALSE.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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