On September 15, 2021, this strike notice circulated across Kenyan social media spaces, protesting the hiked fuel prices.
At the same time, various images claiming to show the said protests made rounds. Piga Firimbi looks into the authenticity of some of these images. These images were shared between September 15 and 16, 2021.
Background
Different parts of the country were affected by this protest. Migori for instance saw motorists blocking the Migori-Isebania highway for close to 5 hours. The hashtags #12NoonWeStop and #FuelPriceHike trended on social media to agitate for lower fuel prices.
The latest price review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority had petrol retailing at Sh134.72, diesel at Sh115.60 and kerosene at Sh110.82 per litre in Nairobi. According to a Citizen Tv report, the increment ranged between Sh7.58 and Sh12.97 per litre across the country.
Verification
This image claiming to show the fuel protests at Thika Road was shared on September 16, 2021.
Results from a reverse search reveal the earliest this image appeared on the internet was June 3, 2014. According to the Africa Reporter news website, events in the image happened during a matatu strike in 2014. The same image was featured by The Standard on August 20, 2018, stating that matatu operators were protesting increased tax levies on fuel at the time.
Another image showing protesters hanging off a bus on this tweet claims to show the situation at Tom Mboya street, Nairobi on September 16, 2021.
However, according to reverse image searches the image is from November 4, 2018 as published in this article by Pulse Live.
Similarly, this tweet stating that “Kenyans were serious” about protesting the hiked fuel prices, adding that ‘ishaanza’, which is Swahili for ‘it has begun’.
Although the image appeared on the internet on April 28, 2014. According to an article by The Will news website, events in the image came after a bomb attack at Nyanya bus park in Nigeria. Further, an advanced search with keywords; ‘Nyanya Bus Park Nigeria Traffic’ in the month of April 2014 shows the same image was featured on The Nigerian Voice on the same day.
Additionally, this image shared on September 15, 2021, claimed to show a similar protest in Germany. The tweet claimed that from the protest shown in the image, the German government eventually reduced fuel prices, suggesting that this is the kind of protest Kenyan motorists should stage.
However, a reverse image search shows that the photo is from a Mid-Autumn festival in Shenzhen, China in September 2012.
Verdict
NO, these images were not taken during the recent protest on hiked fuel prices in Kenya.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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