Old video from Kenya misrepresented as crackdown on LA immigration protests
A post published on Facebook on June 8, 2025, reads: 'Trump deploys National Guard to LA immigration 'riots' after claiming state officials 'can't do their jobs'.'
'California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed that the Trump administration is deploying '2,000 soldiers' to Los Angeles after local police used tear gas, stun guns, and riot shields to push back immigration protesters on Saturday,' the caption adds.
The post was shared more than 1,300 times.
The video features three clips: two showing water cannons being used to disperse protesters, one coloured with pink dye, and a third of tear gas being used on a busy street.
Shouting can be heard in the background as demonstrators run for cover.
Similar posts containing the video were also shared on X, with captions written in Arabic here and here.
'This is the freedom of expression that America boasts about ... and is using it against the demonstrators in Los Angeles,' reads one of the X posts.
The claims followed protests that began on June 6, 2025, in the US city of Los Angeles, against recent immigration raids (archived here).
In response, Trump deployed over 2,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 members of the US Marines, a force primarily trained for foreign wars (archived here and here).
However, posts claiming to depict how the LA protesters were dispersed with water cannons are false.
A reverse image search using keyframes generated by the InVID-WeVerify verification tool revealed that the same video, containing the three clips, was previously posted on June 28, 2024, by another Facebook user, who captioned the post 'Kenya' (archived here).
A keyword search on X for protests in Kenya led to other posts showing similar scenes taking place in what appears to be the same location. One such post included a reposted TikTok video with a text overlay reading 'Nairobi Kenyatta Avenue' (archived here).
NAIROBI, KENYA: If this isn't a revolution by a sufficiently fed-up population, tell me what is. From imposing Bill Gates' GMOs on them to banning the dissemination of healthy organic seeds to now the so called #FinanceBilll. The people have had enough. And that's how you show an… pic.twitter.com/siqK7Xv1VE
— J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) June 22, 2024
A Google Earth search pinpointed the location of the video to Koinange Street, which intersects with Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi's Central Business District.
A comparison of the Facebook video with Google Earth street view imagery reveals that the video clips were flipped.
When the street view image is also flipped for accurate comparison, distinctive features, including the blue building and a bend on the road match the first clip of the Facebook video's location.
In the last clip from the Facebook video, the same billboard placement can be seen on a tall building, which we identified as Telposta Towers.
Additionally, the red structure visible in the clip, confirmed to be a public smoking zone via Google Street View, can be seen along the same street.
Additionally, an AFP photograph taken on June 25, 2024, shows Kenyan police using water cannons with pink dye on protesters.
Protests erupted in Kenya in June 2024, occasioned by the finance bill, which proposed tax hikes. The bill triggered weeks of demonstrations that spiralled into violent and deadly clashes with police (archived here).
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked another claim about the same video in a similar context here.
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