No, photos old, don't show police brutality during 2024 anti-tax protests in Kenya
IN SHORT: Two photos showing a police officer appearing to brutally attack a helpless man have circulated on social media in Kenya, with claims that they're from the 2024 anti-tax protests. But these photos are old and have been online since at least 2014.
Two photos showing a disturbing incident of what appears to be police brutality have been circulating on social media. The photos show several police officers surrounding and attacking a man on the ground. Kenyans are claiming they were taken during Kenya's 2024 anti-tax protests.
One photo shows the man being attacked by a police dog and an officer beating him with a stick. Other police officers stand by and watch, some of whom appear to be smiling and laughing.
One of the posts sharing the photos on X reads: "These photos from the quarry yesterday reveal shocking police misconduct. Such inhumanity cannot go unchecked. Expose the police who are involved in such acts."
The photos were also shared here with similar claims, and together have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Context to anti-tax protests against Ruto
The 2024 anti-tax protests are still continuing at a reduced level at time of publication, despite the withdrawal of the controversial taxation bill. And photos and videos capturing key events are still being widely shared.
A major focus of the protests has been the police's treatment of demonstrators. The police have been accused of using excessive force. Scores of demonstrators have been arrested and several people have been abducted by suspected plainclothes officers.
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The claim mentions a quarry because of the gruesome discoveries of at least 10 bodies in a waterlogged quarry in a Nairobi slum. This sparked speculation that murdered protesters were being dumped there.
The police said the bodies were the victims of a serial killer they had arrested and who they said had confessed.
Photos and videos of alleged police brutality continue to circulate online, but not all are accurate. So, are these photos of such blatant brutality accurate, and did they actually take place at some point since June 2024? We checked.
Photos dating from at least 2014
Some of the police officers in the photos are wearing outdated police uniforms, suggesting that the photos are old. Kenya changed its police uniforms in 2018.
This is further confirmed by a reverse image search, which shows that the photos have been circulating online since at least 2014.
We found this instance where the photos were shared on X (then Twitter) in December 2014, with conversations below the tweet suggesting they were taken even earlier.
In the replies to the tweet, the author of the tweet confirmed that the photos were taken during an earlier police operation in Nairobi's Mathare slums, launched after the killing of two police officers.
The claim that these photos were taken in 2024 during or after the anti-tax protests is false.
