The ClarityDeskSeptember 8, 2025
Fact-checker: Jibi Moses
A video that was spreading on social media claiming a bus belonging to the Bebeto Coach Services Ltd caught fire on the Kampala — Juba highway on Sunday, 7 September 2025, is false.
The video (archived) was shared by This is South Sudan (archived), A Facebook page that describes itself as a tourist information centre and boasts of about 46,000 likes. The video garnered 20 reactions, 2 comments, and 21,000 views.
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BA TU (archived) is another site where the video was also posted, claiming the bus caught fire along the Kampala — Juba highway in the night. Adormedia (archived), another online page, also posted the same video with the caption, ‘A Bebeto bus travelling from Nairobi to Kisumu caught fire this morning.’
Other sites that also shared the claim include Your Voice News Facebook page here, African Hub on X (formerly Twitter) here and Agola Kapuk on Facebook here.
Debunking the Claim:
The video is being described as travelling from Kampala to Juba on the night of Sunday, 7 September 2025; however, no specific location is named where the incident happened. This and other factors, like the credibility of the outlets that reported, made this publication to investigate the claim.
A keyword search for the words ‘Bebeto bus + caught fire + Kampala + Juba highway’ (archived) didn’t return any serious results; however, among the results, one outlet, Juba Eye, published a press release from Bebeto Bus Services (archived). The release, which was dated 6 September 2025, clearly explained that the fire was caused by brake failure around Kisumu, on a Nairobi-bound bus from Kampala. They went ahead to explain that all the passengers are safe and accounted for.
Other instances that happened to Bebeto Bus.
In recent times, there have been similar incidents involving buses belonging to Bebeto Coach Services Limited.
On Tuesday, 24 September 2024, at Lakarakak, between Nyerjebe and Kubi, one of the company’s buses was attacked by unidentified armed groups, where some people were taken hostage. The bus was set ablaze, according to reports from The New Vision (archived link), Voice Juba (archived link), and Informer East Africa (archived link).
On a different occasion on 21 November, 2024, a Bebeto commercial bus travelling from Juba to Nimule caught fire in the morning at Moli area, between Kitfo and Kotemiga; the main reason given was that the fire was started by electrical failure since the bus is electric according to Radio Tamazuj (archived link), Number One Citizen (archived link), and Eye Radio (archived link).
These were reported incidents that happened to the bus company last year on the Juba — Kampala highway, between Juba and Nimule.
Our Verdict:
The ClarityDesk has found a video making rounds claiming that a burning Bebeto bus was en route to Juba from Kampala to be false; bus 215Z was travelling from Kampala to Nairobi, and the incident happened around the Kisumu area, specifically, according to Bebeto Coach Services Limited, the company owning the bus.
Have you spotted an error in this article and would like to request a correction, or have you come across a claim that we should investigate? Please send us an email via editor@claritydesk.org or click here to WhatsApp us via +211 928 606 958.
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