Financial Times story about U.S. probe into Kenya's 2014 Eurobond sale is fabricated

What's the claim?

A screenshot circulating on social media purportedly shows the front page of the British business daily Financial Times (FT) with a headline suggesting that the U.S. Federal Reserve is initiating an investigation into the flow of $2.75 billion Eurobond raised by Kenya in 2014.

The screenshot of the purported report displays a picture of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. The strap under the headline alleges that investigators claimed that $117 million was transferred from a 'JP Morgan account' to the former Kenyan President's kin. The article, supposedly written by Demetri Sevastopulo, is dated November 28, 2023.

On Facebook, one user shared the screenshot (archived here) of the purported front page with the caption, "The SOLO source of kENYa poverty from ONe family since 1960…. KENYA is strong as would have been a failed state with the looting carried out by PANDORA…Unga is 135KSh The PLAN is working (sic) …!'' 

Another user posted the screenshot on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: "Heading: U.S. Federal Reserve opens investigation on Kenya's $2.75B Euro Bond. Subheading: Investigators say $117M moved from JP Morgan A/C to Kenyatta kin. They're basically saying the Kenyattas stole Euro Bond. They only want to zero in on the powerful kin of the other kins (sic)." The post had garnered over 23,000 views at the time of publishing. Another X post making similar claims had been viewed over 202,000 times. Archived versions of these posts can be found here and here.

Screenshots of posts on X (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshots/ Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the Financial Times confirmed to Logically Facts that the purported report is fake.

What did we find?

We checked the November 28 FT issue and found that the lead story on the front page of the international edition differs from the one circulating on social media. Financial Times posted the front page of this edition on X, showing that the lead story was a report headlined "Musk meeting extension to truce in Gaza." The front page of the United Kingdom edition was also the same, as seen in the post below.

We noted that the purported viral FT front page displays headlines from two stories in colored boxes just below the masthead. In the viral screenshot, the headline "Can Milei's unlikely ally help fix Argentina? WORLD. PAGE 4" appears in a blue-colored box on the left, while the headline "Japan firebrands cross swords over Shinsei LEO LEWIS, PAGE 15" is in red on the right.

Upon research, we found that FT's Asia edition on November 23 had prominently highlighted the same headlines in a similar fashion on its front page. The snippets in the section titled 'Briefing' on the right are the same as those seen in the viral screenshot. However, the lead story on the front page of this edition read: "U.S. warned India after foiling plot to kill Sikh separatist on American soil," accompanied by a photo of U.S.-based Sikh separatist Singh Pannun. 

Comparison of the fake headline with the authentic Financial Times headline from November 23, 2023. (Source: X/Financial Times/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

This front page was manipulated to replace the original story with the headline "U.S. Federal Reserve opens investigation on Kenya's 2014 $2.75 Billion Euro Bond," along with an image of Kenyatta. It should be noted that the font of the headline on the viral screenshot differs from that used by FT on its front pages.

The date of this edition was also altered to read "Tuesday, 28 November 2023" instead of "Thursday, 23 November 2023" on the left side, while the location of the edition was changed to Africa from Asia. The Financial Times does not publish a separate Africa edition; it has a U.K. edition, a U.S. edition, a European edition, an Asia edition, and a Middle East edition.

Comparison of the fake headline with the authentic Financial Times headline from November 23, 2023. (Source: X/Financial Times/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

The purported article circulating on social media was attributed to Sevastopulo, who, according to his Financial Times bio, is a US-China correspondent covering various aspects of the relationship between the two nations.

Sevastopulo has explicitly denied authorship of the purported report on Kenya. Sharing a post by Caleb Kositany, the chair of Kenya Airports Authority, Sevastopulo referred to the viral screenshot as a "complete fake."

Financial Times also confirmed to Logically Facts that the viral screenshot of its front page was fabricated. Dan McCrum, an investigative journalist who works with the daily, said, "It's a low quality and obvious fake." He also pointed us to Sevastopulo's X post, where the latter had addressed the matter.

Kenya's Eurobond sale

In June 2014, Kenya raised $2.8 billion Eurobond by selling government bonds to mostly European and American investors to support crucial infrastructure and settle debts. A Eurobond is a debt instrument issued in a currency different from the issuing country's home currency. However, as reported by the BBC in 2016, almost $1 billion from the sale allegedly went missing and is unaccounted for. Opposition leader Raila Odinga had accused the then government, headed by Kenyatta, of misusing the funds, a claim vehemently denied by Kenya's central bank.

In October 2023, Reuters reported that Kenya enlisted Citi and South Africa's Standard Group to guide them in handling a maturing $2 billion Eurobond in June 2024. It stated that the nation encountered repayment challenges amid rising yields, excluding many frontier economies from the market.

According to the BBC, several Kenyan citizens had started a campaign in 2016 for the unaccounted funds and had sought intervention from the United States, where funds raised by the bond sale were held. However, we came across no media reports indicating that the U.S. government has launched an investigation into the whereabouts of the Eurobond cash. 

The verdict

A fabricated front page of the Financial Times has been shared to falsely claim that the U.S. Federal Reserve is looking into the flow of $2.75 billion Eurobond raised by Kenya in 2014. The supposed author of the alleged article and the Financial Times have clarified that no such piece was published.