Athletics Kenya has denounced an altered version of its press release that has gone viral across social media and termed it as being fake.

The statement was issued to update Kenyans on the Status of the Kenyan Delegation to the World Athletics Championship in Eugene, Oregon, US.

Athletics Kenya went ahead and shared the original copy of the press release, which had uncanny similarities to the one that had been circulating.

However, according to the fake statement, Athletics Kenya denied engaging the Ministry of sports during the visa application process.

“Athletics Kenya did not engage the Ministry during this initial visa application,” the fake statement read.

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The fake statement also alleged that Omanyala and the other athletes went for Visa Biometrics at the US Embassy on July 7, 2022, and they all received their visas 2 days later except for Omanyala. 

The original statement stated that the other athletes were issued their visas just a day after they went for Visa Biometrics.

Apart from the two contrasting issues in the two press releases and the fact that the fake one did not have a signature, the other parts of the two statements checked out.

In a statement, Athletics Kenya revealed Omanyala needed to fill out an additional form to verify some facts before the US Embassy processed his visa.

“When we enquired why, we were informed that he needed to fill in an additional form referred to as supplementary questions for visa applicants, to verify some facts,” the statement read.

According to the statement, the Government or Athletics Kenya could not intervene in the process since it required individual involvement.

“Neither the Ministry, nor Athletics Kenya could intervene because the required processes by the Embassy had to be undertaken individually,” Athletics Kenya said.

Here is the full statement: