ALTERED: This Financial Times front page claiming the US Federal Reserve is investigating Kenya’s 2014 Eurobond is doctored
The Financial Times didn’t publish any such story.
This screenshot on X (formerly Twitter), purportedly of a Financial Times article by correspondent Demetri Sevastopulo about Kenya being under investigation on the 2014 Eurobond, is ALTERED.
The post’s caption reads, “What role did the Kenyatta family play in the Euro Bond scandal, after investigators revealed that $117 million was transferred from a JP Morgan account to a Kenyatta family member?”
According to the National Treasury, Kenya secured a US$2 billion Eurobond in June 2014 with the debt instrument having a June 2024 maturity date. In an update dated 13th February 2024, however, the National Treasury announced the successful pricing of a $1.5 billion Eurobond whose proceeds were meant to repay Kenya’s 2014 bond.
Furthermore, the Business Daily reported that Kenya repaid its debut Eurobond in two installments, one in February 2024 and the other in June, according to Treasury updates.
An advanced search on the Financial Times X account based on the title of one of the stories on the doctored screenshot, “Can Milei’s unlikely ally help fix Argentina?” led to a 23 November 2023 front page cover of the Financial Times.
Interestingly, the edition’s big story is not about the US Federal Reserve investigating Kenya on its debut Eurobond, but a foiled plot to kill an Indian separatist on American soil. Nowhere was former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s name or image used on the front page.
A timeline check on the alleged author of the story, Demetri Sevastopulo’s X account, shows that the altered screenshot came up on or around early December 2023. On 1st December, 2023, Demetri dismissed the claim on X, stating that, “This is a complete fake. I did not write any story about Kenya.”
Furthermore, Maudhui House found that PesaCheck debunked a similar claim on 12 December, 2023 and found the cover to be altered.
Additionally, on different dates in December 2023, several online media outlets in Kenya, including Citizen Digital, The Star, and Nairobi News, debunked the fabricated story bearing the Financial Times branding, labeling it FAKE NEWS.
Maudhui House examined a screenshot on X of a purported Financial Times article about an investigation by the US Federal Reserve Bank on Kenya’s debut Eurobond and established that it is ALTERED.
This fact-check was published by Muadhui House with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
