This tweet from April 23, 2021, claims that a pastor was arrested for allowing people to camp in his church past curfew hours. Images from this tweet show the pastor in question and Kenyan police in uniform.
This Pastor was arrested for allowing people caught past curfew hours to camp in his church hall.. do you think he did a bad thing or should we justify his actions.. pic.twitter.com/ZI8wjoVarm
— The Noise Maker (@TheNoise_Maker) April 23, 2021
Background
In the past weeks, the police have heavily enforced curfew restrictions on major highways in and out of Nairobi. Additionally, Kenya recently banned flights from India for a period of 14 days amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Those travelling from India will be required to take a COVID-19 test upon arrival and also quarantine for 14 days under the watch of officials from the Ministry of Health. These directives took effect on May 1, 2021, at midnight.
Verification
From both these images, a watermark of The Standard can be identified. We used this information to trace these images back to the source and to establish the context in which they were taken. From an advanced search on Twitter, these images were taken by a journalist from The Standard and were first posted on April 21, 2021. The bishop had been arrested for convening a service during curfew hours at the Church of the Lord Christians of all Nations situated along Thika Road.
Using these original images, were ran a reverse image search on them using the first image. During the raid, the police were forced to jump over a wall as the bishop had locked himself in the church. These images were also posted by this site with additional images showing police climbing over a wall.
Verdict
The images showing a bishop being arrested are true. However, claims that he was arrested for allowing people to camp in his church during curfew hours are MISLEADING.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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