Fact Check

Did the Kenyan Government Have Maasai Tribe Whip People To Enforce Curfew?

Humor doesn't always translate from one culture to the next.

Published April 7, 2020

NAIROBI, KENYA - 2020/03/20: A public health officer fumigates part of Gikomba market in Nairobi as a preventive measure against covid-19.
The Kenyan government has banned all public gatherings/activities, rallies and crusades. Places of worship are allowed to hold prayers provided they have hand sanitizers. Kenya has so far reported only seven cases of coronavirus. (Photo by Dennis Sigwe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) (Dennis Sigwe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Image Via Dennis Sigwe/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Claim:
A video shows a member of the Maasai tribe whipping people in Kenya who refused to obey the government's self-quarantine orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In April 2020, a video supposedly showing a member of the Maasai tribe whipping people in the streets who were not obeying the Kenyan government's shelter-in-place order was circulated on social media. One posting to the Public Freakout section of Reddit, which racked up 75,000 upvotes in less than 24 hours, was entitled: "Since people were not taking the police seriously the Kenyan government started using the Maasai tribe for the curfew."

This video is miscaptioned. The Kenyan government did not employ members of the Maasai tribe to whip people who failed to self-quarantine. This video actually comes from a Kenyan comedian and was created for entertainment purposes.

The video was first uploaded to the Mbuzi Seller YouTube account on April 2, 2020. Although Mbuzi Seller didn't provide too much information about the video, it was tagged with words such as "comedy" and "entertainment."

Here's the original video:

While the person in this video is not a member of the Maasai tribe who was employed by the Kenyan government to whip people who disobeyed self-quarantining orders, the video was taken in Kenya during the COVID-19 pandemic and shows a person who is encouraging (in their own weird way) social distancing.

Mbuzi Seller responded to a number of comments below this video. In one message, they wrote that the coronavirus was "no joke." In another, they explained that people should practice social distancing and stay 1 meter away from one another.

While this video was created by a YouTuber and does not show a deputized government official in action,  the government in Kenya has reportedly used violent tactics to enforce its stay-at-home orders.

The Washington Post reported:

Kenya's dusk-to-dawn curfew was intended to encourage social distancing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Instead, security forces unleashed beatings and tear gas, injuring dozens of people, potentially exposing many more to the virus and damaging public trust in the government's strategy to contain the outbreak.

In cities across Kenya, policemen and other uniformed officers used their boots and batons in a brutal crackdown — with some incidents caught on video — seemingly carried out to drive home the seriousness of the curfew measure that took effect Friday.

Sources

Bearak, Max; Ombuor, Rael.   "Kenya’s Coronavirus Curfew Begins With Wave of Police Crackdowns."     The Washington Post.   28 March 2020.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.

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