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Duterte statue in Nairobi? Afrikan Daily makes up another story

Another false story has surfaced on a website masquerading as the genuine African Daily Voice - claiming that Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta had erected a statue in honour of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines.

Posted on the day Kenya marked 55 years of independence, the story claimed the country’s love for Duterte was “beyond measure”.

But its shortcomings are obvious.It doesn’t say where in the central business district of Kenya’s capital Nairobi the statue was erected. There’s also no government body in Kenya called the Dangerous Drugs Board - the National Authority for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse is responsible for fighting drug and alcohol abuse in Kenya. And the Kiswahili word bangi refers to marijuana not, as the story claims, methamphetamine.

The website also used an old picture of a statue of former Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos unveiled in the Philippines in 2015.

Only county government can approve statues


All statues erected in Nairobi’s public spaces must be approved by the county government, Richard Bosire, the county's director of communication, told Africa Check. There has been no approval and there’s no statue. (Note: The director of culture in the ministry of sports and heritage, Dr Kiprop Lagat, also confirmed to Africa Check that only the county government can grant approval for statues in public places.)

A look at the Twitter timeline of Kenya’s president on the day he supposedly launched the statue shows he was attending national festivities at the Nyayo national stadium and at his residence issuing national awards. - Alphonce Shiundu (14/12/2018)



CORRECTION: A previous version of this fact-check said the website African Daily Voice published this false story. In fact, it was an impostor website that used the genuine African Daily Voice's logo, as its director explains here. We have corrected our report and apologise to African Daily Voice for the confusion caused.

 

Further reading:

https://africacheck.org/fbcheck/no-eswatini-hasnt-passed-a-law-to-let-its-king-marry-14-year-old-virgins/

https://africacheck.org/fbcheck/hoax-alert-man-selling-human-meat-in-nairobi-butchery-story-is-false/

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