Out Of Context, The Image Shared Is Not Of John Chikati Murumba But Rather A Ugandan Member Of Parliament, Hon Francis Mwijukye

A screenshot claiming that Tongaren MP John Chikati Murumba who voted yes for the recently contested Finance Bill 2024 was beaten by Kenyans, the screenshot is also accompanied by a photo of a man with a wounded and bleeding face.

This screenshot made rounds during the Kenyan Finance Bill riots. The post was made on Omwamba’s X account and garnered him over a  million views, 6000 reposts, 22000 likes, and 2000 comments on this single post

Evidence 

A Google reverse image search got us results of different reports shared by media outlets such as Kampala Dispatch, Centenary Radio 88.1 FM, Bukedde, and The Independent. On May 13th, 2024, all these platforms used a similar photo as seen in the claim reporting the injuries Hon Francis Mwijukye sustained during an attack while responding to a land conflict on May 12, 2024, at Rwanyamabare Village.

In our advanced X search, results of Member of Parliament for Bukomansimbi South Constituency Hon Kayemba Geofrey Ssolo’s X post dated May 12th, 2024, in which he wished Hon Francis Mwijukye a quick recovery were found, with the same photo as in the claim.

To further ascertain all results, we performed a basic Google search of Hon Francis Mwijukye to find out what news about him trended at the time, and we confirmed that it’s true that the Member of Parliament of Uganda for the Buhweju constituency Hon Francis Mwijukye was attacked and injured during his attempt to respond to a land conflict between members of the Rwanyamabare Catholic Church and a lawyer Edwin Burimbare.

In their article, the Police of Uganda also used the exact image as seen in the claim as they reported that the police were investigating the incident.

Furthermore, we checked Hon Francis’  X account and found an image of his head being dressed after he sustained these injuries. 

Contrary to the claim, The Kenyan Member of Parliament, Hon. John Chikati Murumba has no media reports saying he was attached during the ongoing riot in Kenya. 

Analysing the images, there is no similarity between the photo used in the claim and that of Hon John Chikati,  but the similarity is seen with Hon Francis’ image.

Verdict

False, the image on the claim is used out of context and the man in it is not Hon. John Chikati Murumba, a Kenyan member of the National Assembly for Tongaren. Much as it is true Kenyans have been on a riot that involved violent incidents, the photo used to depict the situation in Kenya in the past few weeks is of a Ugandan member of parliament for Buhweju constituency, Hon Francis Mwijukye who was attacked and injured, while responding to a land conflict on 12.05.2024 at Nyakishana Sub-county.

This fact-check was written by Joyce Namugambe, a trainee under the Debunk Media Initiative’s Fact-Checking Masterclass, sub-edited by Reagan Kiyimba, and edited by Rukia Nabbanja