Clickbait post uses image of 2013 Kenyan ferry tragedy to boost followers on Telegram
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on May 25, 2022 at 11:02
- 4 min read
- By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya
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On May 17, 2022, this Facebook account shared an image of a lorry partly submerged at Kenya’s Likoni Ferry Channel, located in Mombasa county 400 kilometres east of the capital Nairobi.
“This Likoni Ferry needs prayers. This video has shocked the whole country. A vehicle got stuck in the water. Watch this trending video or contact me on WhatsApp I can send you the link," reads the Swahili post, which was shared via Facebook groups with thousands of followers (see here, here and here).
Included in the post is a link to a Telegram channel called “Official Kilimani Mums and Dads”, which has more than 20,000 subscribers.
Contrary to the claim, the link does not lead to a video of the incident.
In fact, the page behind the post appears to exploit other disasters and tragedies in Kenya in a similar way.
For example, a picture of a bus plunged into a river was published on Facebook on May 12, 2022. The post contained a link to the same Telegram channel. But the image was actually from a crash that happened in 2018 along Kenya’s Narok- Maai Mahiu road.
In another instance the page carried a distressing image of schoolchildren lying on a road – the original appeared online five years ago when at least 29 schoolchildren were killed in a bus crash in northern Tanzania. Once more, an appeal was made to utilise the accompanying link to see a recent road accident in Kenya.
Ferry calamity from 2013
A reverse image search finds images of the same accident in reports (see here, here and here) about a January 26, 2013 accident that left 11 people dead, according to the Kenya Red Cross.
According to reports, the driver of the lorry lost control and rammed into the ferry as passengers were boarding.
Also, this video report captures the registration number of the plunged lorry – KAL 117 S – which is the same as the one that appears on the misleading post.
Additionally, AFP captured the image of the 2013 accident but from a different angle (see here).
The latest incident reported at the Likoni crossing channel was on April 2, 2022, when two ferries collided, causing panic and a traffic jam.
The same method of attracting followers to Telegram accounts using images of old disasters passed off as recent events is common in Ethiopia, where AFP Fact Check has debunked various false claims about bus crashes (here and here).
Telegram channels and Facebook pages are popular for these types of scams because they generate advertising income depending on the number of subscribers.
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