A video posted on social media platform X on September 8, 2026, claims to show Kenyans burning cars and homes belonging to foreign nationals in an attempt to force them to leave the country. The video, posted by South African journalist Sihle Mavuso, shows people filming open-air fires on a wooden structure and a vehicle, while someone speaks in Luganda. The post claims the footage was recorded in Horohoro, Kenya, and had garnered approximately 744,000 views, 722 comments, and 4,000 likes at the time of review.
The video post appeared amid heightened regional sensitivities about migration and xenophobia, including separate incidents in South Africa involving anti-immigrant activism. Kenya's President William Ruto had recently ordered a crackdown on foreigners operating small-scale businesses in Kenya, saying local traders and hawkers needed greater protection. The Kenyan law under the Refugee Act 2021 allows refugees to work and operate businesses, provided they obtain the required documentation.
On September 6, 2026, Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry, Hon. Lee Kinyajui, said in a statement that President Ruto's directive was in response to concerns that some foreign nationals were exploiting visa provisions to work without the necessary permits. Kenya's President set a deadline for foreigners operating small-scale businesses to cease their activities, following which long queues formed outside Burundi's embassy in Nairobi.
State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed responded by clarifying that the directive was regulatory, not expulsionary, and announced a 90-day regularisation window while warning against xenophobia. The developments also drew a warning from Burundi's Foreign Minister Édouard Bizimana, who said continued hate speech targeting Burundians in Kenya could strain relations between the two countries.
Verification of the video revealed that it was actually filmed in Uganda, not Kenya. A Google reverse-image search traced the video to a Ugandan journalist's X account, @GabrielBuule, which posted the footage on September 6, 2026. The individual recording speaks Luganda, a Bantu language central to Uganda, and the physical environment in the posts is consistent with recorded imagery from peri-urban workshops in Central Uganda.
Visual and audio verification demonstrates that the footage originated in Uganda rather than Kenya. The silver saloon car visible in the video displays a standard Ugandan registration plate layout, and the location on the post- Horohoro is a key border town situated on the Tanzanian side, directly adjacent to Lunga Lunga on the Kenyan side of the East African coastal corridor.
The case illustrates a common disinformation tactic: recontextualisation, where dramatic crisis footage from neighbouring countries is stripped of its original time and location and recirculated to reinforce a misleading narrative. Consequently, the claim that the video shows Kenyans burning cars and houses of foreign nationals is false.
Key points
- The video claiming Kenyans are burning cars and houses of foreign nationals is false and actually depicts an incident in Uganda.
- The footage was originally posted by a Ugandan journalist, @GabrielBuule, on September 6, 2026.
- The incident has been used to spread misinformation and fuel xenophobia in Kenya.
