Kenya: Old Video Used to Claim That Kenyan Governor Johnson Sakaja Was Stoned After 2026 Market Fire

25 March 2026
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Wanjiru Kamau

Old video used to claim that Kenyan governor Johnson Sakaja was stoned after 2026 market fire

IN SHORT: Viral social media posts claim that the governor of Kenya's Nairobi county was pelted with stones at the popular Toi market after a 2026 fire. But this is misleading because the video being shared as evidence is from August 2024, not March 2026.

According to several social media posts, Kenyan governor Johnson Sakaja was pelted with stones while visiting Toi market after a fire.

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The claim began circulating around 13 March 2026 and featured the same video clip. The video showed Sakaja walking through a fire-damaged market, with a large crowd gathering behind him, shouting angrily.

Moments later, stones were thrown towards Sakaja, prompting a small group of men to form a human shield and escort him away.

Captions accompanying the posts, such as "Sakaja stoned at Toi Market", give the impression that the incident is recent.

Collectively, the posts have gained close to a million views, over 16,400 likes and 1,100 comments.

Fires and tensions at Toi market

Sakaja is the governor of Nairobi City county, while Toi market, located in Kibera, is one of the city's largest informal markets.

Fires are relatively common in such markets across Nairobi and often cause tensions between traders and authorities.

In August 2024, a major fire at Toi market killed four people, destroyed property and sparked anger among traders. When Sakaja visited the scene, he was confronted by a hostile crowd and pelted with stones, forcing his security team to shield him and rush him away.

More recently, another fire was reported at the market on 16 March 2026, drawing renewed public attention. In this context, the resurfaced video can easily be interpreted as footage from the latest incident. But is this true? We checked.

Old video from 2024, not linked to 2026 fire

We noticed that the circulating clip was an exact match of footage widely reported during the August 2024 Toi market fire, when angry traders indeed stoned Sakaja. Key details in the video, including the layout of the burnt stalls and the sequence of events, are consistent with that year's incident.

There have been no credible reports that Sakaja was stoned during or after the 16 March 2026 fire.

The timing of the posts also raises doubts. The video began circulating around 13 March, about three days before the latest Toi market fire. At that point, there had been no recent incident at the market to support the claim.

The fire on 16 March appears to have made the misleading posts seem more believable, even though they were already circulating and unrelated.

The claim is misleading. The video shows an incident from August 2024, not an event linked to the Toi market fire in March 2026.

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