President Kiir isn’t Covid-19 positive, says Ateny

Fake news!

President Salva Kiir hasn’t contracted Covid-19. 

When contacted by 211 Check on Friday, Presidential Press Secretary – Ateny Wek Ateny stated that president Kiir has not contracted the novel coronavirus as rumored on social media. 

“There are some junior staff that have tested positive and two senior officials, which include me and Madut Majok, the political analyst. 

“We were tested positive but amazingly, the president is not infected, so anything that talks about the president being positive is a lie, they are just fabricated lies, the president is safe” said Ateny. 

Ateny, however, confirmed that a number of staff in the office of the president contracted the virus and are under self-quarantine as recommended by medics. 

When 211 Check also fact-checked the above picture using the Photo Forensic image engine, the picture has no origin and it seems to have been photo-shopped. We wrote to Next Media Management (Uganda) for comments but the company is yet to respond. 

This brief alert is published to sensitize you on the ongoing rumors that the president contracted the coronavirus. And thus when you come across such posts, kindly report them to online social media managements or ignore them.  

Note: Don’t engage yourself in online conversations that spread mis/disinformation and hate related content. 

To know about our fact-checking process,  click the link below, https://211check.org/how-to-fact-check/or contact us via211check.org to present a claim, our team will immediately fact-check it and send you an immediate feedback.

This story was fact-checked by Okech Francis, Emmanuel Bida and Juan Mule, AFF- South Sudan fellows.