The photo of a Ugandan military convoy was shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a year ago, not during Kenya’s recent youth-led tax protests.
MARY ALEXANDER • 11 July 2024
Has Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni sent “40 truckloads” of troops to put down the recent finance bill protests in neighbouring Kenya?
That’s the claim in the caption for a photo circulating on social media since 25 June 2024.*
The photo shows a convoy of military and other vehicles on a road, heavily armed soldiers standing around them.
The caption reads: “Museveni sends 40 truckloads of UPDF to ‘quell Kenyan treasonous Gen Z demonstrations’.” One post on X has been viewed almost 500,000 times.
The UPDF is the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces. Gen Z refers to the popular notion of generation Z, young people born from 1997 to 2012.
On 18 June a wave of peaceful protests against the controversial Finance Bill 2024 swept Kenya. The bill proposed increased taxes on essential goods from bread to cooking oil, as well as new taxes on digital revenue and motor vehicles. It also set aside millions of US dollars to renovate State House.
When legislators passed the bill on 25 June the protests – largely led by young people – turned violent. Demonstrators stormed the grounds of parliament, setting part of the building on fire. Police responded with force and five people were shot dead.
President William Ruto denounced the protests as “treasonous”. A day later he said he would not sign the bill into law.
According to Kenya’s human rights commission, at least 39 people were killed in the protests from 18 June to 1 July
But does the photo really show troops from Uganda being sent to “quell Kenyan treasonous Gen Z demonstrations”?
Ugandan peacekeeping force contingent occupies DRC town
A reverse image search reveals that the photo has been online for more than a year, since April 2023. And while it does show Ugandan troops, they are not in Kenya.
The photo appears in several news reports on M23 rebels withdrawing from the town of Bunagana in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in early April of that year. A Ugandan contingent of the East African Community Regional Force then occupied the town.
It was posted on the X account @UPDFspokespersn on 3 April, with the caption: “Yesterday 2nd April 2023, Uganda Contingent of the East African Community Regional Force officially occupied areas of Bunagana Eastern DRC for a peacekeeping Mission in DRC after M23 left the area for UPDF.”
Yesterday 2nd April 2023, Uganda Contingent of the East African Community Regional Force officially occupied areas of Bunagana Eastern DRC for a peacekeeping Mission in DRC after M23 left the area for UPDF. pic.twitter.com/hA0Wi5SYKz
— – (@UPDFspokespersn) April 3, 2023
Conflict between M23 and government forces, supported by regional peacekeeping forces, has been raging in the DRC’s eastern North Kivu province since 2012. The United Nations has found that M23 receives support from Rwanda.
M23 had reportedly held Bunagana, a strategic town in North Kivu, for more than nine months.
There have been no credible news reports of Ugandan troops being sent to quell the protests in Kenya. And the photo was shot in the DRC in 2023.
* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.
Published by Africa Check on 15 July 2024