Old footage of a large crowd marching down a road in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa has resurfaced in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed anti-government protesters in Kenya’s capital Nairobi in June 2024. The video has circulated online since September 2018, during an outbreak of deadly ethnic violence on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
“Riots erupted in the Kenyan capital Nairobi as thousands of young Kenyans taking part in a demonstration made a mad dash to parliament,” read the simplified Chinese caption of a video shared on Weibo on June 25, 2024.
The video shows a crowd chanting loudly as they march down a road.
The clip was shared alongside similar claims on YouTube in English, Kinyarwanda and Urdu. Taiwanese broadcaster SET News also included a still from the clip in a report about demonstrations in Kenya.
It surfaced after largely peaceful rallies in Kenya against a bill containing contentious tax hikes turned violent, with Kenya’s parliament complex ransacked. Human rights groups said at least 30 people died, while authorities put the toll at 19.
Kenyan President William Ruto said he would withdraw the finance bill, adding: “The people have spoken.” Even after the dramatic reversal, small groups of protesters continued to take to the streets calling for the Kenyan leader’s removal.
But the video circulating online was in fact filmed in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.
Addis Ababa rally
A reverse image search using keyframes from the clip led to a YouTube video titled “Addis Ababa at the moment”, which was uploaded on September 17, 2018 (archived link).
The footage circulating online corresponds to the 39-second section of the YouTube video beginning at its 28-second mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the footage used in the false posts (left) and the YouTube video from September 2018 (right):
The same video, titled “Addis Ababa protest”, was also uploaded to another YouTube channel on September 20, 2018 (archived link).
An Amharic-speaking AFP journalist confirmed the crowds in the video are chanting “Is there no government?” in one of the main Ethiopian languages.
According to a video report by Voice of America’s Amharic service, a rally was held in Addis Ababa on September 17, 2018 to protest deadly violence in Burayu, a western suburb of the Ethiopian capital (archived link).
The suburb lies within the Oromia region that surrounds the capital and which is home to the Oromo people, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.
People who fled the clashes told AFP they were targeted by Oromo mobs because they are members of minority ethnic groups.
AFP reported that the violence had started a week earlier, in the run-up to the return of the once-banned Oromo Liberation Front — a rebel group that returned to Ethiopia following a string of radical political reforms pushed through by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
An Oromo himself, Abiy took power in April 2018 and won popularity for his aggressive reform agenda but bloody ethnic clashes broke out repeatedly after his inauguration, with some of the worst clashes occurring in the south where fighting between the Oromo and Gedeo minority displaced nearly one million people.
Subsequent keyword searches on YouTube led to footage of Addis Ababa that included similar buildings to those visible in the falsely shared clip (archived link).
The building with the grey, white and blue exterior is the Grand Eliana Hotel, and imagery from Google Maps’ street view shows it is located on Churchill Avenue (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the footage used in the false posts (left) and Google Maps’ street view (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP:
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