In western Kenya, residents around Lake Victoria use a network of water buses to commute from the coast to the lake’s islands. Recently, two images surfaced online alongside the claim that these water buses were on display. However, this claim is incorrect: the photos, which date from 2009, show an amphibious vehicle built in Malta. The Lake Victoria water buses operate exclusively on water.
A post making this claim has been shared more than 650 times since it was published on Facebook on May 21, 2024.
“Water bus in Lake Victoria, crossing from Homa Bay to Rusinga (KENYA),” reads the caption of the post.
Homa Bay is a township on the shores of Lake Victoria, about 300 kilometers from the capital Nairobi (archived here).
Rusinga Island is a small island in Lake Victoria.
For more than a decade, InfraCo Africa water buses have been providing transport services on Lake Victoria, ferrying residents between the mainland and the various islands (archived here).
But these water buses cannot be seen in the images circulating on social media.
Amphibious vehicle
Through a reverse image search, we found the two images published by the British tabloid Daily Mail in 2009 (archived here).
According to media reports published at the time (see here in English and here in Romanian), these images show an AmphiCoach – an amphibious bus designed to travel both by land and sea and built in Malta.
A Kisumu County official told AFP Fact Check that images shared on social media do not show the water buses in use on Lake Victoria.
InfraCo Africa, a company based in Kisumu, makes the water buses used on Lake Victoria. The company told AFP Fact Check that its watercraft are not amphibious.
“The images do not show the buses we produce, which are used exclusively on the water. Photos of our water buses can be found on our website,” said InfraCo Africa.
Leading Kenyan news organization Nation Media Group also published a clip on its YouTube channel showing one of the water buses on Lake Victoria (archived here).
In addition to InfraCo Africa’s water buses, the lake also has ferries from other companies (archived here).
