No, this picture does not show members of the Al-Shabaab jihadist group killed by Kenyan police this month

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 23, 2019 at 11:42
Updated on January 24, 2019 at 11:42
1 min read
By Mary KULUNDU

An image being shared numerous times on Facebook and Twitter claims to show members of Al Shabaab killed by Kenyan police during a foiled attack at a Chinese road construction site on January 20, 2019. But an online search shows that the picture already appeared in 2015. A police official told AFP that no deaths had been confirmed in the foiled attack, but some of the attackers were believed to have been injured.

The image was shared numerous times on Facebook and Twitter. One of the captions read: “While you were sleeping, Brave KDF soldiers were busy fighting Al shabaab terrorists in Shimbirey, #Garissa. Appreciate KDF for a job well done in securing our borders and protecting our loved ones. #KenyaIsSafe.”

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Screenshot of Facebook post alleging to show members of the Al-Shabaab jihadist group killed by Kenyan police on January 20

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Gunmen, suspected by local media to be from the Al Shabaab group, ambushed a Chinese construction site in northern Kenya on January 20, 2019, five days after a deadly attack on a Nairobi hotel complex, which was reported by AFP here.

Police official David Kerina told AFP that security forces had managed to ward off the attackers at the construction site and that four civilians had been shot and injured.

“The attackers were repulsed because our officers were called on time. They escaped with injuries and there are blood traces on the route they used to escape,” Kerina said.

A reverse image search on Google and Yandex search engines shows the image was first used in 2015 on this news site which describes itself as ‘an independent Somali news website’.

The same picture has been used multiple times including here and here depicting the death of attackers.

AFP has not yet identified when and where this picture was first captured.

EDIT January 24 2019 Fixes header image to blur bodies

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