A TikTok post claims to illustrate floods occurring in Kenya’s North-Eastern region. The post which has a video showing cattle being swept away by floods also contains a caption that reads; “North-Eastern, heavy downpour”.
Background
According to the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) April 2023 newsletter, some parts of North-Eastern Kenya region have indeed been experiencing deadly floods. These include Marsabit, Mandera, Garissa and Wajir Counties. Flooding in Marsabit for instance affected 1,200 households and led to the death of 2,000 livestock, while 1,500 households were affected and 800 livestock died in North Horr, Moyale sub-county (Golbo ward).
Verification
A Google image reverse search on one of the key frames from the video results in a fact-check previously published by Africa Check on August 25, 2020 here, stating that the video is actually from Mexico. The Times of India news website also published the same video in 2020 captioned, “Several cows washed away in floodwaters in Mexico”.
Similarly, PesaCheck debunked claims that the video is from Kenya in a fact-check published on August 17, 2020 here. This fact-check also traced the image back to Mexico’s Nayarit area, albeit Piga Firimbi found that the Mexican news website that originally published the image is now defunct.
Verdict
The claim that the video showing cattle being swept away by floods is from North Eastern Kenya is FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
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