Between October 27 and October 31, 2022, this image has been shared by a number of accounts on Twitter. It claims to show the impact of the drought that is being experienced in Kajiado, on livestock. One recounts having received this “harrowing image from a friend.” Another with similar a caption adds that the drought allegedly left no survivors and thousands of livestock and wildlife are dying. It goes ahead to add to place this image in “Embolioi, Kajiado.”
Background
August is a fairly dry month in Kenya. For arid and semi-arid lands, such as Kajiado East, South and Central, this rain deficit has severely impacted these areas. But for the last four rainy seasons, arid and semi-arid (ASALS) areas classified by their aridity levels have not received sufficient rain. In an October 2022, drought update, nearly 4.35 million are in need of humanitarian assistance due to the effects of drought. For areas classified as being ASALS, Isiolo and Marsabit have severe vegetation deficits while 9 have moderate vegetation deficits. One of these being Kajiado County.
For these acutely affected areas, the Kenyan government set aside two billion to aid in drought response. Moreover, President William Ruto urged the Red Cross to incorporate climate change into its scope of activities.
Verification
Metadata provided by FotoForensics shows the earliest this image was published on February 23, 2017. By definition, this is the extensible metadata platform (XMP) which provides details of an image post-processing. Similarly in an article published by Pesa Check, this image appeared on the internet, between April 24 and August 25 that same year. More results show the same image was reposted on Twitter between November 15 and November 17, 2021.
Verdict
This image does NOT show the impact of the ongoing drought in Kajiado.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.
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