6 million face masks belonging to German army allegedly misplaced at JKIA

The German Ministry of Defence has confirmed the alleged misplacement of six million face masks belonging to the country's army.

According to a spokeswoman in Berlin, the masks are said to have gone missing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) during shipping.

A report by AFP notes that the incident had been reported by a German publication at the end of last week.

6 million face masks belonging to German army allegedly misplaced at JKIA 6 million face masks belonging to German army allegedly misplaced at JKIA Pulse Live Kenya

The official who spoke on the matter noted that efforts are in place to understand why the shipment transited through Kenya as they "try to find out what happened".

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA), however, denied the reports stating that internal investigations revealed that there was no such cargo at JKIA at the said period.

"Our investigation has concluded that there was no cargo of this nature that has passed through JKIA for the last two weeks and no missing cargo has been reported to the authorities.

"We, therefore, wish to inform the public that we are treating this report of alleged disappearance of six million type FFP2 protective masks as fake news & that our cargo section continues with normal operations," a statement from KAA read.

Jack Ma Foundation donation arrives

The puzzling loss comes on a day when Kenya also received its share of donated face masks and testing kits from the Jack Ma Foundation.

"The donation is an initiative of @JackMa FDN and @AlibabaGroup w/ Ethiopian Government to provide medical equipment and kits to African Countries.

"We recognize the vital role our partners play in supporting the government interventions especially those working tirelessly to reduce the impact of COVID-19," an update by the Kenyan Ministry of Health read.

Jack Ma's millions of face masks and coronavirus detection kits in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ready fro distribution across Africa. (Twitter) Pulse Live Kenya