Afrigather No, video does not present flooded valley in Kenya – it is from Saudi Arabia
IN SHORT: Kenya has been hit by heavy rains in 2024, leading to flooding. However this video of a flooded valley was filmed in Saudi Arabia, not Kenya as claimed on-line.
“Flooding in Kenya.” That is the textual content overlaid on a video circulating on social media in Kenya.
It shows an enormous flood, with a white automobile being swept downstream in a valley. Some houses and timber will also be seen.
One person claimed the footage was from Mai Mahiu, a city situated about 45 kilometres from Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Others said the video was taken in Kenya, however didn’t specify the place within the nation.
Since March 2024, Kenya has been experiencing heavy rainfall, inflicting flooding and landslides in some elements of the nation. The death toll was estimated to be at 291 in Might, whereas extra rain was forecast for June. Mai Mahiu was one of many hardest-hit areas, recording no less than 50 deaths.
However was the video filmed in Kenya? We checked.
The footage reveals floods in Saudi Arabia
We ran keyframes from the video by Google Lens to find out its origin. The search revealed that these pictures have been circulating on-line for the reason that finish of March.
The video was originally posted on 31 March by a verified X (previously Twitter) account named Al-Bahah Weather, which describes itself as “a specialised workforce of climate situation analysts and rain science observers within the Al-Bahah area and all areas of the Kingdom”.
The account mentioned the video confirmed flooding in Wadi Al-Hubbara, a valley within the Al-Bahah area of south-west Saudi Arabia.
Utilizing this info, we discovered that the Saudi National Center for Meteorology had issued a red alert for opposed climate circumstances within the area on 30 March, a day earlier than the video first appeared on-line.
The Al-Bahah government and the Saudi civil defense additionally posted movies of floods within the space, however from completely different angles. The architectural parts in these movies match these within the viral footage and Google Maps photos.
The declare that the video reveals flooding in Kenya is fake. It reveals flooding within the southwest area of Saudi Arabia.
The false declare will also be seen here, here, here, here and here.
