Claim: A Liberian journalist, Kyne Oliver Kyne (KOK), posted a video of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai on social media (Facebook) suggesting that he was insulted and called a drug dealer
Verdict: There is no evidence that Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai was booed and called a drug dealer during the Independence celebration. DUBAWA’s investigations and comparative analysis of the videos of the event do not give any indication that he was booed and called a drug dealer.
Full Text
Liberia celebrated its 179th Independence in July this year amidst pomp and pageantry.
The celebration received massive media coverage, as can be seen here, here, and here, with a series of activities, including the dedication of government projects and street parades in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
Days before the celebration, precisely on July 21, 2026, the Joint Security of Liberia busted a huge consignment of drugs worth over three hundred million United States dollars (US$300M) within the Duazon area, outside Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.
This news received massive local and international media coverage, as seen here, here, and here, with its attendant politicisation.
The bust became a national conversation across Liberia, with political parties, especially the immediate past administration and the ruling government, pointing accusing fingers at one another for being responsible for the huge consignment of drugs coming into the country.
Somehow, the controversy surrounding the reported drug bust seeped into Liberia’s independence celebration.
A Liberian journalist, Kyne Oliver Kyne alias KOK, posted a video of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and other government officials, suggesting they were insulted and called drug dealers during Liberia’s 179th Independence Day celebration.
Journalist KOK, a staunch supporter of the immediate past ruling administration of former President George M. Weah, posted on his official Facebook page a video with the inscription, “My people, it’s getting serious…” with some Facebook laughing emojis
In the video, President Joseph Boakai, Vice President Jeremiah K. Koung, Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Grand Bassa County Superintendent, and other government officials are seen walking the streets of Buchanan, with angry chants of “drug dealers” in the background.
The post by journalist KOK generated over 140 comments, more than 370 emojis, and 201 shares.
Below is a screenshot of some of the exchanges under the post by some Liberians
Due to the controversy this video has generated and its implications for Liberia’s image, DUBAWA decided to investigate the claim.
Verification
A large part of the Independence Day celebration was held in public view. This means whatever happened must be within the public domain, with evidence that could easily be corroborated by all and sundry who were present.
To investigate this, DUBAWA used a combination of eyewitness accounts and a manual comparative analysis of multiple videos captured from the same scene.
The researcher first spoke to a journalist who was present at the scene of the event and asked if there was ever a scene with loud chants and boes, accusing the president of being a drug dealer.
Journalist O’Neill Philip of the New Liberia Newspaper told DUBAWA that at no time was there any protest anywhere around the entire Independence Day celebration in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
The journalist said, “Quote me, my brother, there was no protest anywhere near the entire celebration in Grand Bassa County, let alone to talk about where the President had gone to dedicate a project just at the entrance of the county.”
“The People of Grand Bassa were very happy that the celebration was even taken to their county, because, according to them, these kinds of events come with some level of development, including electricity among others,” Philip said.
Beyond the eyewitness account, the researcher reviewed various media livestreams that covered the activities during the Independence Day celebration.
A comparative analysis of videos from Kyne Oliver Kyne alias KOK (Spoon TV live (35:00-35:40 min./seconds), here (Radio Gbehzohn 107.3 10:00 to the end of the video), and here (LNTV Live, 36:56 to 38:00 minutes/seconds) was made.
The videos underwent several audio and video analyses to scrutinise the cues, gaps, and differences.
To ensure a standardised analysis, the research focused on the exact same spot where the president was captured, walking alongside his vice and waving at his supporters and independence celebrants.
Audio, visual cues
All but one of the videos featured the dominant voices of two MCs providing commentary for the event. Incidentally, only Kyne Oliver’s video lacked those dominant voices, which raises a red flag. It is highly unusual for Kyne to have a completely different sound captured from the same event by different people.
All the videos had natural voices in the background except the one posted by Kyne. That also raises a red flag. Kyne’s video points to possible doctoring, which drowns out all the background conversations.
The drug dealer chants captured in Kyne’s video were so loud and dominant that if it did happen, there would have been a possible arrest or chaos between those who were chanting and supporters of Boikai. But nothing like that happened, at least according to the report by the independent journalist who was present.
Kyne’s video already shows signs of visual manipulation, with pictures of drug substances captured in the top-left corner of his publication, something that was missing in all the other videos.
The researcher reviewed other media outlets that provided coverage of the same event and found nothing related to the suggested claim anywhere around the place where the event was happening, as seen here (Spoon TV live (35:00-35:40 min./seconds), here (Radio Gbehzohn 107.3 10:00 to the end of the video), and here (LNTV Live, 36:56 to 38:00 minutes/seconds).
However, the researcher reviewed a video from Liberia Matters covering the University of Liberia campus-based political party, the Student Unification Party (SUP), which was also protesting on the same day, and noticed that both KOK’s video and this protest video share the same audio.
Conclusion
Following research and based on the available information, the video posted by journalist KOK suggesting that President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and other government officials were insulted and called drug dealers is false.