Posts falsely claim old video shows Ugandans flogging gay man
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 6, 2023 at 14:42
- 4 min read
- By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya
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On March 29, 2023, a post from Tanzania shared a muted 30-second video of a man wearing shorts bound to the pillar of a white building.
In Swahili, the Facebook post reads: “This is Uganda after passing the antigay law. They have started hunting down homosexuals and whipping them until their desire to have gay sex disappears (sic).”
The post was shared more than 140 times while the video was viewed close to 60,000 times before it was deleted.
Content warning
The same video – this time with audio – was also shared on a Kenyan Facebook account applauding Uganda for its anti-gay bill.
“This is how now Citizens of Uganda/Government dealing with LGBTQ Members in their country. Then here in Kenya/other countries, they are still entertaining and discussing this Mortal Agenda in their Parliaments and Judiciaries (sic),” reads the caption.
On Twitter, the same claim was tweeted here while a Kenyan pro-LGBTQ account linked the flogging to brutality against gay people, saying: “This is repugnant. LGBTQIA are no lesser beings. I can promise you, homophobic laws will sire such vile.”
Uganda’s proposed law, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, is ready to be sent to President Yoweri Museveni, who is facing calls from the United Nations and the United States to reject it.
The bill was passed (archived here) in a chaotic parliamentary session with many amendments, and neither lawmakers nor analysts are clear about what exactly the legislation dictates.
Unrelated video
However, the video is neither related to Uganda's anti-gay law nor was it filmed in the East African country.
In the unmuted clip, incoherent speech in Nigeria's Igbo language can be heard.
Using the verification tool INVID We-Verify, we conducted a reverse image search and located a Nigerian publication reporting about youths in the West African country being whipped for allegedly using methamphetamine or crystal meth (nicknamed ‘Mkpuru Mmiri’ in Igbo).
The article uses images of the man in the clip, as well as others being flogged in the same way.
Content warning
A Facebook search of the keywords “Mkpuru Mmiri flogging” revealed similar posts published in November 2021.
For example, in this Facebook video posted on November 10, 2021, a man speaking Igbo says: “These are people that take mkpuru mmiri. Today, they are getting punished for their crimes. Their drug group came around and they have to do lockdown to ensure everyone is around to deal with them accordingly (sic).”
In the recording, different men are being flogged.
A comparison of the video we are debunking and the clip from Nigeria taken in 2021 shows the scenes were recorded at the same place. Matching elements include the building with the white archway, people in the crowd and other structures in the background.
Content warning
At the time, there were widespread concerns (archived here) about the use of crystal meth among the youth populations in Nigeria’s southeast region, including the states of Imo, Enugu and Anambra.
Reports described how vigilante groups publicly flogged those caught abusing the highly addictive drug and shared clips on social media (see here and here).
Nigerian lawmaker Lynda Ikpeazu raised the alarm in parliament about the abuse of crystal meth, forcing the country’s drug enforcement agency to raid laboratories producing the drug.
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