The above is a screenshot of a tweet being widely retweeted claiming that a bunch of rowdy youth seen confronting a policeman were stopping the officer from stealing ballots.
Background
Uganda held its general elections on Thursday, January 14. The election was marred by violence and police brutality that has seen some opposition members harassed, detained and even killed. President Museveni deployed the army in Kampala claiming the move was to guard against violence. Museveni’s main rival, Bobi Wine, claims the election was marred with fraud and unlawful restrictions with his campaign team members being arrested and police dispersing his campaigns with teargas.
Verification
A reverse search of the image on Google shows that the image was first published on February 18, 2016, during Uganda’s general election by the Associated Press (AP). The photo was taken by Ben Curtis, the East Africa Chief Photographer, Photo Editor and Bureau Chief for the Associated Press (AP) news agency in Nairobi, Kenya.
The image captions state that a group of angry youth surrounded the officer after waiting for more than 7 hours without being able to vote.
The image was also used by other media outlets such as BuzzFeed News and The Globe and Mail in their coverage of the 2016 Ugandan elections.
Verdict
The claim that the image above shows a group of youth trying to stop a police officer from stealing ballots during the 2021 Ugandan elections is therefore FALSE.
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