Yesterday we published the story of ‘billionaire’ Heshan de Silva being dumped by his PR firm. The story soon erupted and the 26 year old is still trending on Twitter.
After immense pressure on social media, Heshan posted a statement on Twitter, saying he will no longer do media interviews and that he has quit social media.
I would have expected he answered the allegations, but since he did not in that statement, we are left to continue wondering if he’s indeed a con.
So, if the allegations that he has been taking Kenyans for a ride are true, which people are guilty of ‘selling’ him to us.
1. K24 Young Rich Producer
Well, it goes without saying that the guy who introduced Hesh to Kenyans should be first to ‘step aside’. For that particular episode of Young Rich, the producers are listed as Barbara Karuana and Eugene Mbugua.
Watch below to see how it all started.
2. Capital FM
Whoever made the decision to give Hesh his own column should definitely do the honorable thing. On his author bio, this is what they’ve said about him.
“Heshan De Silva is a Venture Capitalist and philanthropist, specialising in the infrastructure, tech and agribusiness sectors.”
3. How we Made it in Africa
I always rely on this website to provide factual business success stories from around Africa, so Mr. editor, I think you deserve the 60 days.
4. KTN
They’ve featured him a few times, including on Weekend Prime. They branded a ‘dollar millionaire.’
My goodness, these journalists.. and how they blame all the troubles in the world on bloggers.
5. Julie Gichuru
She interviewed him on African Leadership Dialogue. She read out details about the 26 year old that are now the subject of contention. Kenyans will forgive Nairobi Wire for occasional slips, but Julie Gichuru should do much better.
6. Jeff Koinange
Even the man himself hosted Hesh on JKL. I didn’t watch it but I guess it was smmmmoking.
Here’s part 1.
7. Glass House PR
They may have outed him, but all those months without smelling a rat?
8. Forbes
This should be the most trusted financial publication in the world, but their African edition is just sh#t. They put you on the billionaires list one year, and the next year they remove you saying their calculation was flawed. Ask Uhuru Kenyatta, Chris Kirubi and Vimal Shah.
But from a publication that has on multiple times proclaimed Heshan de Silva as one of Africa’s youngest billionaires, we should not expect better.
Others
CNBC Africa
Discvory 254
NTV
Standard Newspaper
Basically, every media house has a story about him, mostly with no new information but ‘facts’ from a past story also with little well researched facts.
I was impressed to see Larry Madowo host him on The Trend to speak about depression, without giving all those big titles. Perhaps he was suspicious all along.
