Social media users misrepresent Ghanaian stadium with photo from Kenya

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on January 3, 2024 at 13:27
  • 2 min read
  • By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

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In late December 2023, Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo inaugurated the refurbished Koforidua Sports Stadium. The facility, which also doubles up as a youth resource centre, is located in Koforidua, the capital of the country’s Eastern Region. A few days before the launch, an image emerged on social media claiming to show the newly upgraded stadium. But the photo shows a sports complex in Nairobi, Kenya.

“Newly Constructed Koforidua Sports STADIUM Under @NAkufoAddo (sic),” reads a post published on X on December 21, 2023. It has since been shared more than 140 times. 

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on January 3, 2024

The photo shows a stadium with a grass field, a running track and bleachers covered in dark green roofing. 

Ghana’s national flag is superimposed on the top left of the image. 

The photo was also shared in a separate X post and on Facebook.

On December 27, 2023, President Akufo-Addo inaugurated the newly refurbished Koforidua Sports Stadium.

But the photograph does not show this facility. 

Photo from Kenya

A reverse image search tracked the photo – which in its original form has no Ghanaian flag – to several Kenyan-based news sites, including here and here (archived here and here).  

The photo actually shows the Ulinzi Sports Complex, which belongs to the Kenya Defence Forces. Ulinzi is a Swahili word meaning “defence”.

Screenshot of an article showing the Ulinzi Sports Complex published by Kenya’s Standard Digital in April 2022

The photo was taken in April 2022 when former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta inaugurated the Ulinzi Sports Complex at Langata garrison in Nairobi County.

The news site Standard Digital credited the image to Kenya’s Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU).

The Kenyan government posted the image along with other photos of the sports complex on its official X account on April 13, 2022 (archived here).

Stadium in Ghana

Modern Ghana – a Ghanaian news site – shared photos of the renovated Koforidua Sports Stadium on December 22, 2023 (archived here).

The news organisation told AFP Fact Check that the photos were taken a week before the stadium was reopened. 

Photo showing the renovated Koforidua Stadium from the Modern Ghana news website

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