Fact-check: This picture of two police officers kissing wasn’t taken in Juba

No, the image was taken in Tanzania and has been used by various media houses since October 2014.

Writer: Jibi Moses 

A picture shared on Facebook of two police officers, a male and a female, kissing while donning uniforms is not from Juba, South Sudan.  

The photo claimed to have been taken in Juba, was shared by Juba Eye on August 22, 2023, and was captioned, “I love Juba traffic police; they too love themselves. Do you love your traffic police officers on Juba Streets?”

Screenshot of the picture used by Juba Eye

It had garnered 199 reactions, 43 comments, and two shares at publication. However, the comments had mixed reactions, which prompted an investigation. Some comments rained insults on the traffic police, undermining their integrity. 

The screenshot of the post by Juba Eye shows some of the comments.

Investigation:

A Reverse Image Search shows that the picture was taken in Tanzania and has been online since 2014.

On October 14, 2014, the Independent newspaper published a story featuring the image with the headline ‘Kissing Tanzanian police officers fired after photograph goes viral’. The article explains who the dismissed officers were. It goes on to name them Asumba Mwasumbi, Veronic Mdeme, and Fadhiri Linga, who took the picture, and says that they were dismissed for breaking the code of conduct of the police. 

Screenshot of the image used by the independent Newspaper

Bella Naija, a Nigerian site, also featured the same picture in a story with a similar headline on October 14, 2014. 

Further, the internet is filled with a lot of reports that clearly explain the origin of the picture, as seen from searches on Yandex and Google Lens, and some of the sources include The France 24 Observers and 9news.com

Conclusion:

211 Check found that the picture shared on Facebook of two police officers kissing while donning uniforms is not from Juba, South Sudan. The image was taken in Tanzania and has been used by various media houses since October 2014. Spreading misinformation like this is not okay; it can spoil the reputation and image of the forces and lead to mistrust from the population.

This fact check was published by 211 Check with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and the African Fact-Checking Alliance.

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