Online posts use misleading images to claim Kenyan protesters stole and killed police horse

As mass rallies erupted in Kenya over unpopular tax reform proposals in June 2024, social media users claimed a widely shared video showed protesters stealing a horse from riot police. In reality, the clip predates the current crisis and shows a horse trainer riding in the capital of Nairobi. Some users also posted a graphic image, alleging that the stolen animal had been killed. But AFP Fact Check found that the photo was published more than a decade ago in an article about the US city of Miami.

“Police is requesting the protester who escaped with their horse to return it to the nearest police station (sic),” reads a Facebook post published with a video on June 20, 2024 (archived here).

The post has been viewed more than a million times and has attracted thousands of comments.

The TikTok video, filmed by a road user, shows two horse riders galloping on their steeds alongside traffic in an urban setting.

The same story as repeated on Facebook, on X, in WhatsApp groups, and on TikTok.

While the video was shared in jest in a few instances, some users appeared to believe the claim.

Later in the day, social media users circulated an image of a dead horse claiming the stolen animal had been found killed.

“The horse that Gen Z had stolen from fingerless cop as plan B has been found dead (sic),” an X post reads.

Young Kenyans, commonly referred to as Generation Z or Zoomers, have been at the frontline of protests over the 2024 Finance Bill.

Public unrest continued despite President Ruto scrapping the controversial proposals aimed at hiking taxes including on essential items like bread and sanitary pads (archived here).

However, the claims about a police horse falling victim to protesters are false.

Horsing around

The name “Malieng” appears in the clip of the two horse riders.

A search for the account on TikTok revealed that the same video was published on May 18, 2024 - weeks before the protests erupted in Kenya (archived here).

“Cowboys on the loose!” reads the caption. “There’s dope moments around us everyday. Don’t let the bad times keep you down for too long (sic).”

Malieng's account has various videos of the men riding horses around Nairobi.

Contacted on TikTok, “Malieng” directed us to his riding partner Rick Brian who confirmed the pair were horse trainers in Nairobi’s upmarket Lavington area where they conduct private training sessions.

“I got so many calls. We have not stolen [police horses],” Brian told AFP Fact Check in a phone interview, adding that he had not joined the protests in Nairobi.

Meanwhile, a reverse image search led to the image of the dead horse on this blog published 15 years ago when horses were being poached and slaughtered in the US city of Miami (archived here).

The blog, Tuesday’s Horse, attributed the article and the picture to US news oulet NBC Miami (archived report).

There have been no reports of a missing police horse in Kenya. AFP Fact Check has contacted the police for comment.