Nairobi — A viral video clip showing an apparent street mugging in Nairobi, Kenya, suggesting spiraling crime in recent weeks is false.
The incident is traced to Guyana, and surfaced in November 2022 and was shared on multiple social media accounts including by @Moseax, a Kenyan Youtuber and Travel Blogger.
A tweet by Moseax on November 10, 2022 alluding to the shocking boldness by two men seen choking their victim before fleecing him purportedly in Nairobi is false.
The tweet has attracted a number of retweets, including a quote tweet by @TonnyLegal who called on Kenya Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki to act firmly on marauding gangs.
In the widely-circulated video, the victim of the mugging is seen walking along a pavement when one attacker appears behind him and restrains him with an elbow choke before another mugger, who approached from the front, frisked the victim for valuables.
A reverse image search on the viral video clip however revealed the CCTV footage in question surfaced online on February 10, 2022, when Kaietuer News, a news outlet in Guyana, a country in North America’s North Atlantic coast, reported of successful arrests from the “choke and robe” incident.
The publication indicated the suspects had been apprehended with the help of “clean footage” from surveillance cameras that captured the incident.
The victim of the mugging incident was identified by the news outlet as a 33-year-old businessman from the region of East Coast Demerara.
The thugs reportedly made away with G$700 and a cellphone worth G$48,000.
The report placed the actual scene at Croal Street, Georgetown.
The muggers aged 21 and 25 were arrested at a house on David Street, Kitty, in Georgetown according to Kaietuer News.