Kenya said on Sunday that seven truck drivers, comprising three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian, held in Iraq had been released and were at the Egyptian embassy, but the statement was immediately denied by an Egyptian official and by the company that employs them.
"I am pleased to announce that the three Kenyans, together with four others from other countries, have this afternoon been released," Kenyan Foreign Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere told a press conference in Nairobi.
"They are right now in Baghdad in the safe custody of the Egyptian embassy and they will in the next few hours be taken to Kuwait, where they will be received by our ambassador to Saudi Arabia and his team that is already there," he added.
But the Kuwaiti Company that employs the truck drivers said the men had not been released yet.
"They have not been released. We'd be the first to know" if they were, Rana Abu Zaina, spokeswoman for the Kuwait and Gulf Link Co (KGL), told AFP.
An Egyptian official also denied that any hostages were safely inside his country's embassy in Baghdad.
"All of this is not true and we are still making contacts to secure the release of the hostages... We are hopeful of a positive outcome," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
And a self-styled Iraqi tribal mediator, Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaimi also could not confirm the release of the hostages, who were kidnapped on July 21 by a group, calling itself the Black Flags.
"I know nothing about it. This is all news to me," go-between al-Dulaimi told AFP in Baghdad, shortly before announcing that he had quit from efforts to secure the release of the hostages.
"So far there have been no positive results. The Kuwaiti Company is not responding to us. They have agreed to pull out of Iraq, but they are still arguing about the compensation," Dulaimi said referring to the kidnappers' demands.
But Kenyan foreign ministry's permanent secretary Esther Tolle maintained that the captives had been released.
"You can chose whom you want to believe. We have our own diplomatic channels," she added.
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