IN SHORT: The Kenyan shilling strengthened significantly against the US dollar in February 2024. However, claims that the central bank governor said the local currency would trade as low as KSh130 to the dollar by the end of the month are false.
“We expect the dollar to drop to SHs.130 by end of February,” reads a graphic doing the rounds on Facebook in Kenya.
It attributes the quote to the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Kamau Thugge.
The graphic shows an image of Thugge and the logo of Kenyans.co.ke, a digital news outlet, implying that they published it.
The graphic was posted on 15 February 2024, the day the Kenyan shilling strengthened significantly against the US dollar. The CBK reported that $1 was trading at KSh153.2 on the day, down from KSh156.71 the previous day. This marked one of the currency’s strongest gains in years. The shilling had fallen to a low of KSh161.36 in January.
The graphic has been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But is the claim and the graphic to be trusted? We checked.
‘This never came from us’
While such a statement would have been picked up by the mainstream media given the keen interest in the fortunes of the local currency, we did not find such a quote broadcast or published anywhere.
The graphic can’t be found on the Kenyans.co.ke Facebook or Twitter pages.
Africa Check contacted Brian Muuo, the head of social media at Kenyans.co.ke, about the graphic.
“This never came from us, it’s fake. Our inhouse style guide for writing Kenyan money is always Ksh and not Shs as in the graphic in circulation,” he told us.
We have found no evidence that Thugge said this, or that any media house quoted him as saying it.
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