Old images resurface during Mombasa floods

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 26, 2018 at 15:13
1 min read
By Mary KULUNDU

Pictures claiming to portray cars submerged in flooding in Kenya’s coastal county of Mombasa are circulating widely on social media. Mombasa is currently experiencing heavy rainfall but a reverse image search shows that some of the dramatic pictures have previously appeared online in Nigeria and Kenya.

One p ost, which appeared several times on the Jubilee Party Forum Facebook page, includes a picture of cars submerged up to their roofs surrounded by plastic bottles and trash as onlookers watch from a high point.

Screenshot of Jubilee Party Forum Facebook post

The post, from October 26, 2018, attracted more than 400 shares and reactions and numerous comments in which some blamed the Mombasa County Governor for the poor drainage system in the area.

A caption read: "Current situation in Mombasa county, don't blame the governor, blame the people of Mombasa for electing a pharmacist instead of a leader."

However, a reverse image search on the Google and Yandex search engines shows that the photo has already appeared online in dozens of posts, many labelled as flooding last year in Sango Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Another picture in the same collage, of a matatu minibus purportedly caught up in heavy floods, was actually taken last year during heavy rain in Mombasa.

It was published in the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper, attributed to photojournalist Laban Walloga.

The same pictures were also shared on at least one other Facebook page.

The Kenya Meteorological Department predicted that moderately heavy rain in Mombasa would decrease in intensity on Friday. They warned residents to be on the lookout for flash floods and to follow updates.

It is common for false images exaggerating weather conditions such as flooding to circulate online.

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