KTN News Anchor Speaks On Alleged STI Disease At Standard Group

KTN News Swahili anchor and reporter, Ali Manzu on Saturday morning, March 30 dismissed fears of a spread of syphilis at the Standard Group Limited after false reports had claimed that staffers at the media house were sent home as a preventive measure.

The reports had earlier claimed that a senior anchor at KTN was quarantined after being suspected of spreading the Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) in the newsroom.

In addition, a manipulated memo which also made rounds on social media claimed that the media house was on the verge of going bankrupt and shutting down completely for the first time since its establishment in 1902.

KTN News anchor, Ali Manzu. /STANDARD DIGITAL

Manzu set the record straight by flagging all the reports as fake while expressing gratitude towards his followers for frantically reaching out to him.

"Thanks for your calls, DMs & even those we met this past week asking about the SGL syphilis issue. We are all fine. No one has any Kaswende, kisonono nor mkanda wa jeshi. 

"It’s sad that some people can sit and come up with such fake news of insolvency yet we are all putting efforts to stay afloat. SGL will not go down, we will get back soon," he wrote on X.

Manzu added that Standard Group's young and energetic staff were collectively and still striving to make ends meet despite their current challenges, adding "It’s a painful process, but we cannot fall for fake news. Focus."

"If you feel you are on top of the cape, maintain, you’ll like it when we change. Slowly but steadily sure of the moves," he advised, adding that no one at the media house was infected with an STI.

Syphilis is a preventable and curable bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI). If untreated, it can cause serious health issues, though many people with syphilis do not have symptoms or do not notice them.

The STI, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is transmitted during oral, vaginal and anal sex, in pregnancy and through blood transfusion. Syphilis in pregnancy may lead to stillbirth, newborn death and babies born with syphilis (congenital syphilis).

Correct and consistent use of condoms during sex can prevent syphilis. Rapid tests can provide results in a few minutes, which allows treatment initiation on the same clinic visit.

Standard Group Acting Chief Executive Officer, (C.E.O), Joe Munene, while addressing the fake memo regarding the media house going into insolvency, took note of the tough operating environment in the Kenyan media industry as a whole which has affected its usual financial operations and led to the accumulation of pending bills.

Had the alleged insolvency materialized, it would have sent shockwaves across the country and would have been the culmination of the group's longstanding financial woes with employees from the media company going more than half an entire year without receiving their salaries.