The burning aeroplane was a decorative plane based in Uhuru Park.
This post shared on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to show a video of “a presidential private jet” allegedly set on fire by angry Kenyan youth is FALSE.
“Angry Kenyan youth have burnt down a presidential private jet being used by their president. This is the shape of things unfolding in Africa,” reads the text accompanying the video.
Attached to the X post is a video of a commentator explaining events happening in Kenya.
“Private jet on fire. Kenyan youth just set their president’s private jet on fire,” the man is heard saying.
The video has a split screen showing an individual speaking on the left and footage of the alleged Kenya president’s private jet bursting into flames.
To find out if that information is accurate, PesaCheck performed an image reverse search of the plane’s thumbnail. Results led PesaCheck to videos as seen here, here, here, here, and here. According to the videos, the plane that was set on fire by Kenyan protesters was a stationary plane based at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyans.co.ke also shared the video of a blazing plane on 25 June 2024.
A Google Street View search confirms that the white and blue plane was based at Uhuru Park. The plane is labelled “EY-534”, the same code on the torched plane in the video under investigation. These two publications reported that the plane was operated by Jubba Airways for 35 years before it was left at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in 2012. The plane was one of the planes planned for auction in November 2021 for $3,655.10.
According to local news publications, the plane was towed into the park on 5 August 2021. Those who unloaded the plane said that it would likely be converted into a small hotel. The plane was part of the Uhuru Park facelift done by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) which began in September 2021.
Other than the video of the plane on fire, the clip under review also has other video clips such as an article claiming that Kenyan President William Ruto hired a $1.5M private jet for a trip to the United States which was shared by this publication. President Ruto defended himself by saying it cost Kenya’s taxpayers less than $80,000. The claim under review also features a clip showing Molo MP Kimani Kuria’s property being vandalised for voting Yes, which PesaCheck found to be true. The video also features another clip of Chieni Supermarket in Nyeri being looted which is also true. It is also true that Kenyan protesters invaded parliament on 25 June 2024.
Starting on 18 June 2024, a section of Kenyans across the country took to the streets to demonstrate against the Finance Bill 2024. Despite the demonstrations in at least 35 counties in the country, the Members of Parliament passed the bill on 25 June 2024. Following the unrest in the country, Ruto declined to assent to the Bill and sent it back to parliament with the recommendation that all the clauses be deleted.
PesaCheck has looked into a post shared on X claiming to show a video of a presidential private jet which was allegedly set on fire by angry Kenyan youth and found it to be FALSE.
This post was first published on the PesaCheck website. It 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. They do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
