Old video from Kenya portrayed as visuals of a sand tornado disrupting BJP meeting in West Bengal - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 4, 2021
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as recent visuals of a sand tornado disrupting the BJP election meeting in West Bengal. In the wake of ongoing election rallies & meetings ahead of the West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021, this video is being widely shared on social media.  Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a sand tornado disrupting the BJP election campaign meeting in West Bengal.
Fact: The video shows a fierce whirlwind disrupting a church event in Kenya during 2018. This sudden whirlwind reportedly destroyed chairs and other furniture placed outside the church. This video is an old one and has nothing to do with the BJP election meetings in West Bengal. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots shared in the video, similar visuals were found in an article published by the ‘Daily Mail’ news website on 02 October 2018. This article reported that a fierce whirlwind disrupted a church event in Ukambani, Kenya. This sudden whirlwind destroyed the chairs and other electronic equipment laid along its path while spiraling sand and dust in the air. The same video was also published on the official YouTube channel of the ‘Daily Mail’.
News reports covering the whirlwind disrupting the church event in Kenya can be read here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it is concluded that the video shared in the post is an old one and not related to India.
To sum it up, an old video from Kenya is falsely portrayed as recent visuals of a sand tornado disrupting the BJP’s election meeting in West Bengal.