America’s Cable News Network (CNN) has managed to irk Kenyans again with a report on it CNN Travel section claiming its reporters had found whales in Kenya.  

In the Market Place Africa report titled “The Woman who found whales in Kenya”, CNN claims Jane Spilsbury relocated to Kenya from London with her marine biologist husband and locals shared 'tales' of sighting of whales and dolphins in Watamu. 

CNN goes ahead to state that Spilsbury started to document and photograph existence of the whales which locals had known about for over three decades and even shared with her as vividly captured in their own story. 


Jane Spilsbury. PHOTO/COURTESY

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“Up until recently, most travelers, and even some locals, had no inkling of the aquatic mammals that occupy or pass through Kenya's waters,” she claimed. 

“We literally came from a point of zero information and zero awareness, it seems ridiculous to imagine that nobody knew that the dolphins or whales existed here. We were amazed, because no-one knew there were dolphins out there, not even the Kenya Wildlife Service," Spilsbury then tells CNN in the report. 



The irony is the humpback whales she ‘discovered’ have been in public knowledge in Kenya for years and it is locals who informed her of the presence of the mammals. 

“It was as simple as talking to a fisherman at the bar and asking if he’d seen any humpback whales and he said 'Sure, we've seen them for 30 years,” she added. 

Turtle Bay Beach Club says the Humpback whales which are about 15 metres long and weigh up to 30 tonnes travel in their thousands from the Antarctic to Kenya to breed in the safe tropical waters each year.  

Both the whale and wildebeest migrations peak from July to September meaning Kenya hosts the ‘Twin Migration’ phenomenon that integrates both savannah and sea safaris. 

CNN in 2015 also irked Kenyans on Twitter, who bashed the network viciously for its biased reportage on Africa after it sensationally reported that then President Barack Obama was going to a ‘hotbed of terror’.

Here are some of the responses from Kenyans on the whale story: