A video clip of the infamous Kakamega Primary School stampede has gone viral in West African countries including Ghana and Nigeria.
A report by France 24 Online indicated that some media outlets in Ghana had claimed that the children passed away after consuming poisonous biscuits.
The report indicated that the clip had made rounds on social media especially Whatsapp with a graphic image showing pupils lying on the ground.
The gossip blogs further claimed that the students had been poisoned while celebrating a birthday party in class.
“One of their class member was celebrating birthday, brought biscuits etc, shared to other members in the class, they ate and died all," read a caption accompanying the post.
The clip first appeared in February 2020 and has been circulating since then with the most recent post on Facebook having taken place on Wednesday, June 2, 2021.
Fact-checking organisations, however, traced the clip back to an incident in which 15 Kakamega Primary School pupils lost their lives after a stampede at the school on February 3, 2020.
The tragic incident occurred as the pupils were running away from their classes at around 5 p.m.
39 others were injured and rushed to Kakamega County Referral Hospital, following the tragic occurrence caused by a stampede linked to a prank by a pupil.
Local residents and parents were inconsolable once the news broke, with initial reports stating that the students were trumped on a section of the staircase at one of the buildings.
Some of the witnesses at the scene of the dreadful stampede claimed that some of the students fell from the third floor of the building as they ran out of class.
Investigations by police later ruled the incident as an accident noting that teachers were the first responders.
Some of the wailing parents were captured on a clip that is making rounds in West Africa.
The school has over 3,000 students with the then headteacher, Dickson Wanyangu being absent from the school at the time of the tragic accident.
