Old video of Ghanaian fire festival wrongly linked to protests over Kenyan tax law

The claim was repeated elsewhere Tweet And Facebook.

Protests against taxes

Rallies in Kenya turned deadly on June 25 when protesters forced their way into Parliament where lawmakers were voting on whether to pass the Finance Bill 2024. The proposed tax law was intended to introduce new levies and duties on a range of goods, including basic goods.

Amid the growing unrest, President William Ruto finally decided announced the withdrawal of the bill.

The youth-led demonstrations were initially largely peaceful, with thousands in Nairobi and elsewhere in the country protesting against the proposed tax hikes.

However, tensions rose when police officers fired live ammunition at the crowd, who later ransacked the parliament building.

AFP journalists saw three people lying on the ground near parliament, bleeding profusely and motionless (archived here).

As the chaos deepened and crowds began to leave the city centre, reports circulated of a large police presence and live ammunition being fired in Githurai 45, near Nairobi.

The Law Society of Kenya called for an investigation into the alleged shootings, dubbed the “Githurai Massacre” (archived here).

Newspapers spoke of confusion and the use of lethal force: headlines such as “Overnight of terror for Githurai Residents” and “Contradictory death tolls, pain and torment as families search for their loved ones” were used to describe the events in Githurai (archived here And here).

However, the video of a crowd marching with torches does not show a night vigil in Githurai.

Fire Festival

Using the verification tool InVID WE Verify, we found the same video on TikTok here And herepublished on August 8, 2022 (archived here And here).

“Annual Dagomba fire festival Ghana,” reads one message. The Dagomba are an ethnic group.

In one of the TikTok clips, onlookers use Dagbani, a widely spoken language in northern Ghana.

According to reports in Ghana (see here, here And here), the festival is known as Bugum Chugu and is celebrated annually in the first month of the Dagomba lunar year (archived here, here And here).

The celebration is marked with singing, dancing, drums and the waving of flaming torches made of grass.

AFP Fact Check earlier debunked the same video when it circulated in Burkina Faso, alongside claims that it showed a Pan-African march.

The owner of this TikTok account confirmed at the time that the clip was shot in Yendi, a city in northern Ghana.