This archive report was first published on 10 July 2021.
On July 10, 2021, the National Police Service (NPS) released a statement on Twitter, urging the public to ignore a viral video circulating on social media.
The video in question appears to show a police officer being robbed of his phone while on duty at a busy roundabout in Kenya. However, the NPS claims that the video has been manipulated and carries a malicious intention.
According to the NPS, their investigations have revealed that the video is a manipulated one, and they are urging the public to ignore it.
Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi was among the first to dismiss the NPS statement, calling it 'silly' and suggesting that the police should instead focus on tracing the culprits and buying the officer a new phone.
The video, which was posted online by several influencers, shows a traffic officer momentarily stopping to pick a call and then having his phone snatched by a pillion passenger on a boda boda. The incident was recorded at around 5:00 pm on a date in early July.
