Claims that began circulating on November 10, 2021 associated this police officer with chaos experienced in Kisumu after Deputy President William Ruto’s visit. A number of Twitter and Facebook posts referring to him as Sergeant Kimeto allege that he detonated teargas canisters at the UDA rally in Kisumu.
Background
Deputy President William Ruto’s political rally on November 10, 2021 in Kisumu was disrupted by violence. His motorcade was stoned as teargas canisters were lobbed to disperse the crowd. Reports say, youths in this rally were agitated by the deputy president’s earlier attacks on Former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.
Verification
Reverse image searches show this image surfaced the internet on November 20 2019. This, according to Citizen Digital, was taken during an anti-graft crackdown by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officers in Kisumu. Three police officers were arrested while taking bribes from motorists along the Kisumu-Kakamega highway.
Further looking into the names of the police officers arrested during this operation, an article by Nation Media named Gladys Chemutai, Fredrick Matunda and Marwa Mwita as some of the police officers involved during this crackdown. No further results show any police officers by the name; Robert Kimeto, associated with the anti-graft crackdown in Kisumu on November 20, 2019 or the chaos experienced in Kondele on November 10, 2021.
Similarly, Piga Firimbi has previously looked into a video allegedly associated with this chaos.
Verdict
An image circulating online claiming to show a police arrested following chaos experienced in Kondele is FAKE.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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