Photo shows Ugandan troops in the DRC, not at Kenya protests

Thousands of mostly young Kenyans protested against controversial tax hike proposals in June 2024. Although the bill was eventually scrapped, a photo shared online purportedly showed Ugandan troops sent to the country to help quell the unrest. But the claim is false: the image dates back to April 2023 and shows Ugandan peacekeepers in eastern DRC.

The photo of soldiers in military uniforms, armed with guns and surrounded by armoured vehicles, has been shared more than 500 times since it was published on X on June 25, 2024.

“Museveni sends 40 truckloads of UPDF to 'quell Kenyan treasonous Gen Z demos’,” the caption reads.

The “UPDF” stands for Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces while the country’s leader is President Yoweri Museveni.

Tax bill upheaval

In June, Kenyans took to the streets to protest against the government's Finance Bill 2024 (archived here).

Presented to parliament in May, the bill proposed introducing various taxes and levies on basic commodities such as bread, cooking oil and sugar.

President William Ruto won the 2022 election on a pledge to elevate the lives of the poor. The public response to the bill has been strident.

Police opened fire on angry protesters who stormed parliament on June 25, resulting in the eventual deaths of more than 20 people. Sections of the building were set ablaze as lawmakers tried to pass the controversial bill (archived here).

A day later, Ruto announced the proposal would be withdrawn (archived here).

However, the image doing rounds on social media does not show Uganda troops en route to Kenya to help crush the anti-tax protests.

Uganda and DRC

A reverse image search led to the image on the official UPDF spokesperson’s X account — and republished from there on the news site Sputnik (archived here and here).

UPDF spokesman Felix Kulayigye told AFP Fact Check that “the photo is of Uganda peacekeepers when they arrived in Bunagana in the Democratic Republic of Congo in April last year”.

In the past year, the eastern DRC region has experienced a surge in violence initiated by different armed groups, among them the M23, prompting the intervention of the United Nations through the deployment of peacekeeping forces (archived here).