14 University of Nairobi students have tested positive for COVID-19.
The article, which is dated March 16, states that the information is from a news report run by KTN News, and adds that the students from Kenya Science campus have been quarantined at the Kenyatta National Hospital., However, KTN News Editor Paul Nabiswa has stated that the news organization did not broadcast the report as claimed in the article. A look at KTN’s YouTube page shows that the station did not broadcast a report making the claim on March 16 as stated in the Times Live article., Government Spokesperson Cyrus Oguna confirmed that as of March 16, the country had a total of 20 suspected cases. Out of these, three had been confirmed as having the disease and are undergoing treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital, and 17 others are in quarantine awaiting test results at the Mbagathi hospital. Some of the 17 in quarantine have been in direct contact with the 3 confirmed cases., Hezekiah Gikambi, the Communications Manager at Kenyatta National Hospital has dismissed the claim that the hospital had quarantined students from the university. He further stated that updates on COVID-19 cases in Kenya can only be made by the government spokesperson and the Ministry of Health., PesaCheck also reached out to the University of Nairobi but was yet to receive a response by the time this article was published. By the time of the publication of the article, President Uhuru Kenyatta had already suspended learning from all institutions in the country., The John Hopkins University and Medicine Resource Center put the number of confirmed cases in Kenya at 3. Globally, there are 182,413 confirmed cases and 7,154 reported deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic., PesaCheck has looked into an article that claims that 14 students from the University of Nairobi are infected with coronavirus and finds it to be FALSE., This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms., By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds., Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content., This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker James Okong’o and edited by PesaCheck Deputy Editor Ann Ngengere with research input from Mercy Karagi., The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Eric Mugendi., PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org., PesaCheck is a joint initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with additional funding support from the International Budget Partnership (Kenya) and Twaweza, in partnership with a coalition of local media organisations, and the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)., Written by, Written by
FALSE: A post claiming that 14 University of Nairobi students are infected with COVID-19 is a hoax