False: This is not an image of the UPDF who were allegedly Deployed To quell the 2024 Kenya Finance Bill Riots

An X post claiming that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni sent 40 truckloads of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to Kenya during the anti-Financial Bill riots. The post was accompanied by a photo showing a military truck and soldiers on the move.

Research:

Through a Google Lens reverse image search, we found several stories published in 2023 that used the same photo in the claim. These stories link the photo to DR Congo, not Kenya.

The photo is captioned in the New Times article posted on April 4th, 2023, “The Uganda contingent of the East African Community Regional Force, on April 2, officially occupied areas of Bunagana in eastern DR Congo after M23 rebels left the area.”

Another article dated June 19th, 2023, credited the same image to the UPDF Spokesperson’s X account (formerly Twitter). The credit linked us to a post from April 3, 2023, which contained two pictures, one of which was the photo in question.

The UPDF Spokesperson X’s post caption stated that on April 2, 2023, the Uganda Contingent of the East African Community Regional Force officially took control of areas of Bunagana in eastern DRC for a peacekeeping mission after the M23 group left the area for the UPDF.

We confirmed this information by conducting a Google search and found several articles reporting on the event in Bunagana as seen here and here. The photo in the New Vision article shows clues like the customs offices, a military truck, and UPDF soldiers as in the photo in question.

**Courtesy Photo**: *Red arrows indicate elements spotted in the image used in the claim and that we found in the New Vision article.*

To determine if the events took place in the same location, we used Google Lens to reverse search a photo used in the New Vision article and found a video by Africa News that showed scenes from the same place where the photo in question was taken.

**Photo**: *Red arrows and circles highlighting identical spots in both the claim and the video by Africa News, which was taken at Bunagana.*

In the video from Africa News, a road signpost for Bunagana is visible as the camera pans around.

As an international relations issue, it’s important to note that no local, regional, or international media outlet has reported that Uganda has sent UPDF troops to Kenya, as confirmed by a Google search. The X account sharing this information poses to be a media outlet but has been flagged for spreading false news.

Verdict

False: Uganda did not send UPDF trucks to Kenya during the 2024 Finance Bill riots. The photo used in the claim was taken in Bunagana, DR Congo, on April 2, 2023, when the UPDF had taken over the eastern DRC from the M23 rebel group.

This fact-check post was produced by Debunk Media Initiative under the African Fact-Checking Incubator program, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).

Reagan Kiyimba

2021 Africa Check Award-winning Fact-Checker, Media Challenge Initiative Fellow class of 2020, 2022 Code For Africa and International Fact-Checking Network Climate Change Fact-Checking Fellow, 360 Digital Sherlock, trained by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab in open-source intelligence.