On December 4, 2021 a video showing cattle being carried away by floods. This tweet attributes the video to Kitui county while another from August 14, 2020 claimed these cattle were washed away during floods experienced in West Pokot.
Exactly where did these floods happen and when?
Background
Kitui County is one of Eastern Kenya’s regions that faces dry seasons from time to time. The National Drought Management Authority lists Kitui county as part of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) in Kenya. These ASALs account for 89% of the country with 38% of Kenya’s population. Among these, the worst affected are Turkana, Garissa, Wajir and Marsabit counties.
On December 4, 2021, at least 20 people drowned as a bus they were in tried to cross an overflowed river in Kitui. The bus is said to have carried members of a church choir who were on their way to a wedding.
Verification
These floods were experienced in Mexico, according to a reverse image search. In this Facebook post from July 28, 2020, the state of Nayarit in Mexico had been hit by a hurricane. A river in this state; Zacualpan, which is located between the towns of Las Varas and Zacualpan overflowed, carrying with it cattle and a number of houses.
An advanced search on Twitter and Google lead to different posts with this video. Two tweets on July 28, 2020 and another on August 22, 2020 attribute this video to a hurricane experienced in Nayarit, Mexico. The same search on Google leads to a YouTube upload on July 29, 2020.
This video has also been debunked a number of times. In this Fact-Check by AFP, Nayirat state experienced a ‘Hanna’ hurricane causing damage and loss of livestock.
Verdict
NO, this video does not show the impact of floods experienced in Kitui County.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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