Netanyahu Denies Reports of Assassination Attempt in Kenya

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) —
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta walk together to give a joint press conference at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Netanyahu is in Kenya as part of his four-nation tour of Africa. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (L) and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta walk together to give a joint press conference at State House in Nairobi, Kenya, Tuesday. (AP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is denying reports of an attempt on his life in Kenya during his African tour this week.

Netanyahu said Thursday he knew “nothing” of an assassination attempt and said he was learning about it for the first time during a press conference with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn in Addis Ababa.

In response to a reporter’s question following an anonymously sourced report in the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida, Netanyahu said, “The answer is we know nothing about it because there is nothing in it.”

Kenyan officials also denied there was an effort to kill Netanyahu.

“An attempted assassination can’t be secret. It has to be something visible, and to my knowledge there was absolutely nothing of the sort,” Kenya’s Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka told The Associated Press.

“I’m not aware, and there was no such thing at all. Those are lies,” Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said a report that the motorcade changed its route because of an explosives threat was “simply not true.”

The Israeli prime minister is protected by heavy security in Israel and abroad, given high threats against Israeli targets around the world.

 

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