Out of Context: The Picture Used by Joel Ssenyonyi Is Not From Apartheid But Civil Rights Peaceful Demonstrations in Alabama, USA

An X post shared by the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi, claiming that police in Uganda are releasing dogs on National Unity Platform (NUP) party supporters, like what occurred in South Africa during apartheid, is out of context.

This!! pic.twitter.com/KHYQTuXDUb

— Joel Ssenyonyi (@JoelSsenyonyi) November 26, 2025

Background

Apartheid was a policy or a system in South Africa institutionalised to segregate or discriminate against people by race. It was enforced from 1948 to the early 1990s by the white minority government, oppressing the Black and other non-white groups. They legally separated housing, education, public and social life.

While documenting the incident of police brutality during the NUP campaign activities, Ssenyonyi shared a post of two pictures and captioned it “This!!”, drawing a comparison between the Ugandan police actions and historical scenes associated with the Apartheid Era in South Africa. This post sparked outrage among netizens, many of whom criticised the Uganda police.

The Facts

Both pictures shared in the post depict how police are using dogs to disperse crowds. Whereas it is true and there is evidence of the Uganda police using dogs to disperse the crowds, the one picture shared by Ssenyonyi to draw a comparison and heighten the severity of the situation was not from the apartheid.

While dogs were also used by police in South Africa during the apartheid era to intimidate and disperse Black Africans here, here, here, and here, the picture in question does not originate from that context but from peaceful civil rights protesters during the struggle against racial segregation in the United States.

Police turn a dog on a man who seems to be a bystander, during an anti-aparthied rally. (Photo by William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Images)

Evidence

We conducted a reverse image search on the upper picture and found out that the image was among those taken during the peaceful civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, in 1963, documenting how police used dogs to disperse the demonstrators here, here, here, here and here

Police dogs, held by officers, jump at a man with torn trousers during a non-violent demonstration, Birmingham, Alabama, May 3, 1963. Police officers used both dogs and firehoses to break up the rally. (Photo by Charles Moore/Getty Images)

A similar verification was conducted on the second picture, which shows police releasing a dog on a supporter at Kyagulanyi’s campaign rally in Kawempe here, here, and here.

We also found that the narrative was amplified after the Uganda Law Society (ULS) issued a statement condemning the police and drawing parallels to the use of dogs during apartheid.

OUR SAY: Police dogs at a political rally? @PoliceUg @UgandaEC @JudiciaryUG @NUP_Ug @NRMOnline @FDCOfficial1 #BangTheTable #BackOnTrack #RNBVision2060 pic.twitter.com/fWsFhG44Gi

— Uganda Law Society (@ug_lawsociety) November 25, 2025

This was followed by several publications here, here, here, here, here, and here that echoed the same concern. But the netizens continued to circulate and use the falsely attributed picture to support the narrative here, here, here, and here.

Verdict

Out of context: The upper picture used in Ssenyonyi’s viral X post is not from South Africa’s apartheid era but from the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. Presenting it as evidence of apartheid is misleading, and the comparison should be treated with caution.