Back to Africa Check

No, Citizen TV didn’t report coronavirus case at Kenya’s Meru University

“Shock hits Meru University students after a student is tested positive of coronavirus making it a second case of COVID-19,” reads what looks like a screenshot of a Facebook post by Kenya’s Citizen TV, posted on the social network on 16 March 2020.

“All students are urged to calm down as school management finds the solution towards the same.”

Kenya confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on 13 March. By 18 March, the country had a total of seven confirmed cases.

Is the screenshot legit? We checked.



‘Ignore this post’


On 16 March, Citizen TV posted the screenshot on Facebook with “FAKE” stamped on it.

“Another day, another fake alert! Again, kindly ignore this post that is doing the rounds and avoid sharing it to stop creating panic,” the media house said.

Meru University has also dismissed the post as fake. – Dancan Bwire




 

Republish our content for free

We believe that everyone needs the facts.

You can republish the text of this article free of charge, both online and in print. However, we ask that you pay attention to these simple guidelines. In a nutshell:

1. Do not include images, as in most cases we do not own the copyright.

2. Please do not edit the article.

3. Make sure you credit "Africa Check" in the byline and don't forget to mention that the article was originally published on africacheck.org.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.