By Juliet Buna
On July 13, 2024, an X user, Cornelius K. Ronoh (@itskipronoh) shared images of the recent unrest in Kenya, condemning the actions of police officers and vowing to expose them.
The caption on the images shared by Ronoh reads, “This is evil, wickedness and madness! These stupid police officers will regret this! We are going to expose them! Their families will not like it! #RutoMustGo”
The post drew mixed reactions from other users. P. Krazinski (@PkkipK) criticised the low salaries of police officers, saying they earn only Ksh. 25,000 per month, yet act with impunity. He wrote, “This is the reason most policemen retire poor. The only thing they take home is the makende they wint in with. They earn a mere ksh.25k a month and act like they are the top of the world.”
Karuga Kamau (@_karugaKamau) called for change and accountability, citing the need for prosecution of officers involved in extrajudicial killings, abductions, and torture. He wrote, “Are the cops blind to what is happening, are they not aware they are being watched, are we going to be saying the same thing over and over again? Change is a must, change is inevitable, people need to be held liable. Koome might have resigned and Kindiki suspended but extrajudicial killings occurred while they were in office and they need to be prosecuted. Each cop who actively participated in the killings, abductions and torture need to get jailed for misconduct.”
However, others dismissed the post as an old story and one user, Mr Kinuthia Pius (@Belive_Kinuthia) accused Ronoh of propaganda and using old photos to incite the public.
VERIFICATION
The ongoing protests in Kenya have taken a devastating turn, with at least 50 people killed and 413 injured since the demonstrations began on June 18, according to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
The protests, led by the youth, have rocked the country, with Nairobi’s city centre being the epicentre of the unrest. Initially sparked by unpopular tax rises, the demonstrations have since evolved to include demands for President William Ruto’s resignation.
Despite the government’s withdrawal of the contentious tax increases, the protests have shown no signs of abating, with demonstrators calling for broader reforms and an end to corruption.
In the aftermath of the recent protests, a series of videos and images have been circulating online, purportedly depicting the events. One of those posts is the images posted by Ronoh. A Google reverse image search conducted by NV- A indicates that the images are from incidents of police brutality in enya before the viral protest.
One of the images shared by Ronoh was first shared by a Kenyan photojournalist and politician, Boniface Mwangi, in April 2017 on his Facebook and X pages. Further investigation uncovered a post from March 2020 by X user, Jomoko (@yawajomoko), who shared one of the images shared by Ronoh with the caption, “I wish the people of Langas Eldoret can revenge for this poor dude. Catch one policeman, strip him naked and whoop his ass like a burukenge.”
Additionally, Dr. Chris Cyril (@DrCyrilo) also posted the same image from Jomoko in 2020 with a caption in Swahili, “Shirika la kutetea haki za binadamu duniani linahitaji kuweka nguvu katika kunusuru maisha ya binadamu wasokuwa na hatia kwann polisi wanakuwa wajinga kiasi hiki unampiga mtu kiasi hicho?” which translates to, “The global human rights organization needs to put more effort into saving the lives of innocent people. Why are the police so foolish to beat someone so much?”
In the same March 2020, an X user with the handle @Chiggscom shared two of the images posted by Ronoh, with the Swahili caption, “Huwezi amini kuna watu from #Oppostiontz wanapanga kutunza picha hizi ili wazizungushe baadae waseme hii ni Tarime, hii ni Arusha, hii Mbeya ila changamoto kwao itabaki kuwa hizo sare za makarao japo hata wanaweza diriki kusema Tz imeazima jeshi la Kenya; hawashindwi hawa vichaa!” This translates to “You can’t believe there are people from #Oppostiontz who are planning to keep these pictures so they can circulate them later and say this is Tarime, this is Arusha, this is Mbeya, but the challenge for them will remain those makarao uniforms, even if they can say Tz has borrowed the Kenyan army; these crazy people don’t win!”
CONCLUSION
The images shared are MISLEADING as they are old images from 2017 and 2020 but used to depict a protest that just occurred in 2024.
