Video of Kenyan police officer stomping on a man’s head is from 2018, not 2025

“This is unacceptable. The law MUST protect civilians from these type of police officers. @ODPP_KE @DCI_Kenya @IPOA_KE Do your job (sic),” reads an X post published on May 5, 2025, and reposted more than 500 times.

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Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on May 6, 2025

In the video, a policeman wearing black pants and a blue shirt repeatedly stomps on the head and neck of a man who is lying on the ground.

The clip was shared by Morara Kebaso, an activist-turned-politician who has exposed unfinished government projects started by President William Ruto (archived here).

Since gaining prominence, he has had brushes with the law and announced his presidential bid for the 2027 general elections (archived here and here).

Kebaso also published the clip on Instagram, Threads and Facebook, calling on the relevant authorities to act.

The same video was shared elsewhere on X (here and here) and on YouTube (here and here).

According to the Missing Voices Report 2024, jointly published on May 7, 2025, by the International Justice Mission (IJM), Amnesty International Kenya (AIK) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), at least 104 people were killed by police in 2024 and 55 went missing (archived here).

Notably, June and July 2024 accounted for the deadliest months, occasioned by the nationwide anti-government protests (archived here).

However, the video showing a man being assaulted by a Kenyan police officer is old.

2018 assault

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip and found the original footage published by Kenyan media outlet NTV on April 7, 2018 (archived here).

“National police service identify policeman caught on camera assaulting suspect,” reads the video’s title.

The same officer, his victim and surrounding features including the three parked cars appear in both videos.

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Screenshots comparing the misleading post (left) and the original clip published by NTV

According to local reports, the incident took place in Nairobi’s Industrial Area and the victim of the assault was identified as Brian Ogutu, a loader for a local company (archived here).

The National Police Service clarified in a statement on May 6, 2025, that the assault depicted was not recent (archived here).

“National Police Service (NPS) has taken cognisance of a disturbing video circulating in the media, which shows a police officer assaulting a man lying on the ground,” reads part of the statement.

“The Service wishes to clarify that the incident occurred in 2018, and the officer captured in the clip was identified, with appropriate disciplinary action taken against him.”

AFP Fact Check has previously debunked a different claim from Nigeria using the same video.