FALSE: This video does not show 13 children who died from COVID-19 at a South African school
PesaCheck’s research shows that the children died during a stampede at Kakamega Primary School in Kenya.
This video tweet claiming to show 13 children who died from novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a South African school is FALSE.
In the video, children are seen lying flat on their backs in a straight line as people look on, while mourning is heard.
To verify the video’s authenticity, we performed a video reverse search using InVid and discovered it was taken in Kenya, and not South Africa.
According to one of the search results, the deceased children were from Kakamega Primary School in Kenya. The 13 pupils fell and lost their lives during a stampede on 3 February 2020.
A news report filed by NTV Kenya indicates that pupils aged between 10–12 years were rushing out of their classrooms at the end of their school day when the fatal accident occurred.
Forty other pupils were injured and taken to Kakamega Referral Hospital for treatment. But by 10 February 2020, Nation Africa reported that the death toll had risen to 15 after two more succumbed to their injuries. The Standard and the BBC also covered the tragic accident.
PesaCheck has looked into a tweet with a video claiming to show 13 children who died from COVID-19 at a South African school and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
