These underwater photos are not from the Likoni Channel

A Facebook post with images claiming to show vehicles on the floor of the Likoni Channel is FALSE.

The post appears to link this to the search for the bodies of a woman and her daughter who drowned in the Indian Ocean after the vehicle they were in slipped off the Likoni Ferry and sank on September 29.

A reverse image search shows that the photos are not from the Likoni Channel as claimed in the post.The first image is from a video taken by Chris Roxburgh, a hobbyist diver based in Michigan. The video was recorded at Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan, and Chris first posted it to his Facebook page on April 30, 2018, and to his YouTube channel in October of the same year.

The video was republished alongside an article in the Detroit Free Press on May 8, 2018, as well as on the MLive.com Facebook page dedicated to news from Michigan.

Confirming to PesaCheck that he took the video that the photo was extracted from, Chris Roxburgh stated that the model of the car is a 1979 Ford Pinto, and the video and image were both was shared on a number of news outlets, including USA Today, the Detroit Free Press and the Grand Rapids Press.

A reverse image search of the second photo shows that it is from this video shared on YouTube apparently showing an abandoned or crashed car found 200 metres under water. The video was published on July 24, 2016. The video was credited to Krzysztof Starnawaski, a technical diver.

A reverse image search of the third photo shows that it was published on AquaViews, a blog dedicated to content about diving, on July 5, 2009. The article states that the photo is of the remains of MS Zenobia, a Swedish-built ferry, which capsized and sank near Larnaca in Cyprus during its maiden voyage in June 1980. MS Zenobia was carrying a cargo of trucks that can still be seen under the water, and the wreck is a popular dive site. The photo was also shared by Blaze Press, in March 24, 2015.

The photos in the Facebook post claiming that they are from Likoni are all from different locations, and the post attempts to link them to an incident at the Likoni Channel in Mombasa, where a car sank after slipping off the Likoni Ferry. The car was retrieved from the Indian Ocean on October 11.

PesaCheck has looked into the claim that a Facebook post containing underwater images showed vehicles at the bottom of the Likoni Channel and finds it to be FALSE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Researcher James Okong’o, was edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Ann Ngengere and was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi.