Caleb Kositany, the chairman of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), has come under fire from a Financial Times correspondent for sharing bogus news that he claimed was released by a UK-based news agency.
Kositany shared a picture of a Financial Times cover page with the caption, “US Federal Reserve opens investigation on Kenya’s 2014 $2.75 billion (Ksh421 billion) Euro Bond,” on November 30.
Hence the noise. pic.twitter.com/khxm64nKID
— Hon Caleb Kositany (@ckositany) November 30, 2023
The story stated that Magana Kenyatta, the stepbrother of former President Uhuru Kenyatta, received $117 million (Ksh17 billion) from the Euro Bond and that the money was deposited into an account connected to him.
Demetri Sevastopulo, who initially claimed to be the author of the piece, has since reported it as fraudulent, worrisome, and inaccurate.
Sevastopulo, a reporter with over 13 years of experience covering China and the US, took to social media to question why a senior official would disseminate false information.
“This is a complete fake. I did not write any story about Kenya. Mr Kositany, I hope you are more careful about how you run your airports and you should be ashamed for spreading such fake news,” the reporter chided Kositany.
Adding;
“When I was 2 years old I did “meet” Jomo Kenyatta on a beach in Mombasa, but I am pretty sure we did not talk about the Federal Reserve,” he added.
Even after the screenshot’s falsity was publicly acknowledged, the unconcerned Kositany had not yet removed the incorrect tweet at the time of publication.
