Courtesy The Daily News

Sri Lankan Ambassador in Kenya Veluppillai Kananathan sent a letter of demand to Hirunika Premachandra contesting her recent slanderous and baseless statement against him in a press conference on April 15, 2022.

 Hirunika Premachandra said that Kananathan was the owner of the jet bearing number T7JSH on which Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Tirupathy last year. Further she said that Kananthan was a member of the LTTE and he was the owner of ‘Ceylon Cafe’ in Uganda, Hirunika also said that the gold confiscated from the LTTE was in Kananathan’s possession. Kananathan claimed that these allegations were absolutely baseless, fabricated and nothing but an act of character assassination for her cheap political gain and ulterior motives.

Ambassador Kananathan,is a well-known entrepreneur in Uganda and many African countries who has been a longtime resident in Uganda since 1987 with sound corporate, political and social repute to his credit.

Sri Lanka chose to appoint Kananathan as Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in Uganda for his enterprising status, corporate credentials and the political influence that he had enjoyed with the Ugandan and many African countries. Kananathan also served as the Advisor to former President of Guinea Alpha Condé on foreign direct investments until December 2020.

Impressed by Kananathan’s performance as Honorary Consul to promote Sri Lanka in Uganda, he was appointed as the first High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Uganda. As High Commissioner, Kananathan was able to increase the presence of Sri Lankan companies making them a dominant force in the multi-million mini-hydropower generation sub-sector especially in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Proceeds of these investments were contributed to the foreign exchange income of Sri Lanka.

Further, during his tenure as High Commissioner in Uganda until 2015 and currently, High Commissioner in Kenya since 2020, he assisted Sri Lanka to get the support of the African countries to Sri Lanka in the UNHRC. He personally met the Heads of State and Foreign Ministers of the African member countries of UNHRC and lobbied their support.

Kananathan grew up in Bandarawela his whole life until he started his career in Colombo.He is a Sri Lankan citizen of Tamil decent with moderate views who never had any affiliation or connection what so ever with any movement including the LTTE. He was educated at S.Thomas’ College in Sri Lanka.

Kananathan is an ambassador par excellence and he is an asset to the country in Africa.It is regrettable that in the political fray of the ongoing crisis, Ambassador Kananathan has been unnecessarily slandered on the basis of false and unsubstantiated information for petty political motives.