This photo on Facebook supposedly of anti-Kenya government protests in Runyenjes, Embu County, on 12 July 2023, is FALSE.

The photo is of bonfires in the middle of a road and a crowd watching from the sidelines.

The claim was made after the opposition Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition announced countrywide anti-government demonstrations for 12 July 2023.

But is the image of Embu residents taking part in the Azimio protests?

Google reverse image search results established that the photo is from April 2023.

The results led to the Missing Voices website, where the photo was published as a featured image in the article, “Chuka residents demand justice after police kill civilian.”

The photo was also published on Twitter, as seen here and here, depicting demonstrations in Chuka Town, Tharaka-Nithi County, over the murder of civilians.

Embu and Tharaka-Nithi are neighbouring counties.

A keyword search established that no credible media reported on demonstrations in Runyenjes.

PesaCheck examined a photo on Facebook supposedly of anti-Kenya government protests in Runyenjes, Embu County, on 12 July 2023 and found it to be FALSE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Rodgers Omondi and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editorDoreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visitpesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.