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HOAX ALERT: Kenya’s President Kenyatta not in hospital, as fake news site claims

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has been admitted to Nairobi Hospital for an eye ailment, claims a website known for publishing fake news.



Until recently the site, Afrikan-Daily.com, pretended it was African Daily Voice, a real pan-African news agency based in Equatorial Guinea. It even used the genuine site’s name and logo but after Africa Check exposed many of its stories as fake it now has no identity.

On 2 January 2019 the site claimed Kenyatta’s hospitalisation had been “revealed by statehouse operatives today at 9.01 am”. It said he was “with immediate family members who included his wife and mother”, citing “a statement by Statehouse spokesman”.

But State House spokesperson Kanze Dena said the president had not been treated for an eye ailment.

“No, that is false information,” she told Africa Check.

Kenyatta has been on holiday at the coast since 23 December 2018 and has not yet returned to Nairobi, she said.

Nairobi Hospital does not have a branch at the coast, its spokesperson told Africa Check. So the president could not have visited it outside Nairobi. Vincent Ng’ethe (09/01/2018)




 

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