Has Somalia’s Said Deni Bought Sarova Stanley Hotel?

By Naomi Wanjiku

These screenshots by Nation Africa, Citizen TV Kenya, and KTN News Kenya claim that Somalia’s Putland state president, Said Deni, has bought Nairobi’s Sarova Stanley hotel.

One of the screenshots, alleged to be from Nation Africa, claims that the president acquired the hotel for $21.7 millions [sic].

The other screenshot labelled Citizen TV Kenya claims that a Nairobi broker-dealer said the money was most likely looted from Somalia.

“This scandal is likely to destroy his political reputation in Somalia,” the screenshot from Citizen TV Kenya says in part.

The one from KTN News Kenya further claims that the information came to light through the help of a whistleblower.

Verification

However, Sarova Stanley, through their official Twitter page, flagged the information as fake.

“Sarova Hotels and Resorts Kenya would like to caution the public on a post making rounds on social media alleging that our Nairobi hotel, Sarova Stanley, has been bought by a Business Tycoon from Somalia. The aforementioned post is not factual and is FAKE NEWS,” the hotel wrote on their Twitter account.

The 5-star hotel further added that the sale of one of their facilities would warrant an official statement from the company’s board of directors.

“Sarova Hotels and Resorts Kenya would further like to notify the public that if a sale of any of our hotels was to take place, an official statement from the Company’s Board of Directors would be released,” the hotel added.

PesaCheck also reached out to the group head of marketing at Sarova Hotels and Resorts, Caroline Wandetto, who told us that no one had bought Sarova Stanley.

“The hotel has not been sold,” Wandetto said in a message.

Sarova Stanley is a 5-star luxury hotel located in Nairobi and is among three city hotels under Sarova Hotels and Resorts. The latter also has three safari hotels and one beach hotel.

To verify the legitimacy of the screenshots, PesaCheck also contacted the three media houses.

The Standard Group PLC digital editor, Caroline Kimutai, told this fact-checker that the screenshot branded KTN News Kenya did not originate from their media house.

“We have reviewed our posts and we did not post that,” Kimutai responded to PesaCheck via email.

Similarly, Nation Africa’s audience engagement producer, Augustine Sang, said the Nation screenshot in question is fake.

“That one clearly is a fake, I can give you my assurance on that. There was a similar post with the Citizen TV logo. It’s malice really. It has been quite rampant, people are trying to mislead the audience by putting prominent brand logos on screenshots,” Sang told this fact-checker over the phone.

Citizen TV Kenya also distanced itself from the Sarova Stanley sale screenshot which contained their logo.

“That is another fake post and you can tell from the font size of the text and also, if you check our platforms, there is no such content,” the Royal Media Services digital editor Philip Mwaniki told PesaCheck in an email.

Verdict