Disinformation: DCI owns up to sharing fake photos of Azimio maandamano

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has apologised for using old images to depict the chaos that happened during last Monday's protests by Azimio la Umoja. However, through their official Twitter handle, DCI appeared to blame the general public for the mix up since most of the photos they used were sent to them via a hashtag they had created online. Through the hashtag #FichuakwaDCI the agency sought to collect information from members of the public regarding criminal activities that might be taking place as a result of the protests.

PUBLIC APOLOGY

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations wishes to unreservedly apologize to the public for the mix-up of images in yesterday’s communication, which was meant to appeal for information regarding the whereabouts of criminal suspects involved in Monday’s pic.twitter.com/kEHO3KDozV — DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) March 25, 2023

“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations wishes to unreservedly apologize to the public for the mix-up of images in yesterday’s communication, which was meant to appeal for information regarding the whereabouts of criminal suspects involved in Monday’s illegal demonstrations,” DCI tweeted. “The mix-up was partly occasioned by the overwhelming information that we had received via the #FichuakwaDCI online platform regarding the reported incidents of violence. While we work towards rectifying the same and maintaining public confidence in our operations, the Directorate continues to appeal to the public for information regarding the whereabouts of the suspects whose images appear below.” Also read: Supermarket says it lost Sh15m during Azimio protests amid witchcraft claims A reverse search done by Taifa Leo newspaper revealed that most of the photos used by DCI are old pictures and have no relation to the Azimio protests. For instance, one of the photos that captures a man in a white hat was taken on January, 17, 2008 in Kibera. The photo is owned by Getty images and was taken during the post-election violence. Also read: Simba Arati - I’m ready to work with Ruto Another photo is of a group of people captured jumping a burning log, the photo was taken by Al Jazeera in May 2015 in Burundi. From the 12 photos shared another one also captures a group of youth jumping behind burning tyres. A reverse search revealed that the photo was taken by German media DW in August 16, 2022. Also read: Creator of viral Maandamano Kibera ‘movie’ speaks