Climate

Footage of Kenyan hospital flooding is from 2019, not 2024

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on January 12, 2024 at 12:11
  • 2 min read
  • By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

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Heavy rains pounded Kenya’s capital Nairobi on January 5, 2024, causing flash floods and temporarily blocking roads. Amid the chaos, social media users shared a clip of a flooded hospital, with some alleging that it showed the Aga Khan University Hospital while others said it was the Nairobi Hospital. However, these claims are misleading. While the video was indeed filmed at Aga Khan University Hospital, it dates back to 2019. 

"Nairobi Agakhan Hospital after the rains yesterday," reads one of the posts published on TikTok on January 6, 2024. It has since been viewed more than 10,000 times.

Screenshot showing the misleading post, taken on January 11, 2024

"Current flooding situation at the Nairobi Hospital with a possible patient evacuation being mulled," says another post sharing the same clip on Facebook on January 6, 2024.

The footage shows a flooded corridor in what looks like a hospital. 

The clip was also shared elsewhere on TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.

Hundreds of people have died and millions more have been affected since rains began in Kenya in October 2023 (archived here).

Floods have washed away villages, wiping out homes and roads, especially in the northern and coastal regions of the country.

But the video does not show recent flooding caused by the ongoing rains.

Video from 2019

A reverse image search turned up a screenshot from the footage, shared by Aga Khan University Hospital on its X account (then Twitter) in November 2019 (archived here). 

Screenshot from the video shared by the Aga Khan University Hospital in 2019 showing a corridor flooded with water

"The video is from a flooding incident in 2019 at our Parklands main hospital. It caused a temporary disruption at the time but normalcy was restored on the same day," Aga Khan University Hospital told AFP Fact Check on January 11, 2024.

According to a statement issued by the hospital at the time, its maintenance staff together with the Nairobi city disaster management team drained the water and normal services resumed.

Some of the recent social media posts also claimed that the same clip showed flooding at the Nairobi Hospital. 

A spokesman for Nairobi Hospital dismissed the claim (archived here) in a statement on January 6, 2024.

"The Nairobi Hospital assures all our stakeholders in Kenya, the region and beyond that operations in the Main Hospital, Departments and our Outpatient Centres are running smoothly despite the heavy rains that pounded Nairobi on Friday 5th January 2024," James Nyamongo said. 

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