This photo on Facebook purportedly of a blocked road in Kisii County on 19 July 2023, amid anti-government protests in Kenya, is FALSE.

The image depicts a road blocked with makeshift concrete walls.

On 19 July 2023, the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya opposition coalition organised anti-government protests in various parts of the country, including Kisii County.

The Kenyan media reported that a section of Kisii residents engaged police in running battles, paralysing normal operations in the county.

But is the photo of the events in Kisii County?

Dissenting comments in response to the tweet such as this and this prompted us to investigate the image.

We performed a Google reverse image search and established that the photo was initially published on 3 May 2023.

According to a tweet by Kenyans.co.ke, the photo was from anti-government protests in Migori County.

Tuko.co.ke also published a similar photo and reported that it was taken in Migori County in May 2023.

PesaCheck examined a photo on Facebook purportedly of a blocked road in Kisii County during the 19 July 2023 anti-Kenya government protests across the country 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 editor Doreen 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, visit pesacheck.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.