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2015 article about Kenya university shooting mistaken for current event

Articles covering an April 2015 attack on a Kenyan university by Islamist terrorists that left 147 people dead are recirculating under the mistaken belief that is occurred in 2019.

In fact many comments claim that the attack was in response to the March 2019 New Zealand mosque shootings, despite happening nearly four years before.

It is an article from the UK’s Telegraph that appears to be circulating the most. In the article, it is claimed that the Islamic gunmen were deliberately targeted Christian students at a Kenya university. In all, 147 people were killed by militant Islamist group al-Shabab.


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Those circulating the story are claiming the gunmen are acting in retribution to the killings in New Zealand that left 50 Muslims dead when an extreme-right terrorist went into two mosques armed with several rifles. Of course that is not the case since the article they are sharing happened four years ago, long before the New Zealand mosque shootings.

Many sharing the story in 2019 have commented that the story has been given little mainstream media attention, apparently unaware that it happened four years ago, when it was covered by all mainstream media outlets.

As such, if you do see or share this story, we recommend being clear that this is not a current event, to avoid causing confusion to other Internet users.

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Published by
Craig Haley